The Arizona Supreme Court just ruled 4-2 that an 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions with no exceptions was constitutional. This law had been dormant for decades since the US Supreme Court recognized abortion as a constitutional right in Roe v. Wade in 1972 but has now been revived since the same court reversed its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson (2022).
The impetus behind the revival of this law stems from Mark Brnovich, a Republican politician and attorney who formerly served as Arizona's 26th Attorney General. Following the Dobbs ruling, Brnovich sought relief under the Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure to resurrect this antiquated law. Initially granted by a trial court, this motion was subsequently contested and overturned by Planned Parenthood in the court of appeal.
Upon reaching the Arizona Supreme Court, it was determined that the legislature, both in 1864 and thereafter, never acknowledged a right to abortion at the state level. Instead, Arizona law explicitly recognizes rights for unborn children at all stages of development, akin to those of already-born individuals.
Consequently, the majority opinion of the Arizona Supreme Court maintained that the abortion issue, laden with moral and public policy implications, engenders fervent debate and impassioned debate among citizens. Thus, they emphasized that such weighty policy matters should be resolved by the electorate through the legislature or the initiative process—not by the courts. Their role, they affirmed, was simply to interpret the law as written, adhering to their limited constitutional mandate.
The key lesson to learn here is that in the absence of robust constitutional protections rights, women's lives will be left to the personal whims and fancies of politicians, who in this case, seem to care more about the rights of fetuses than actual women.
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