Arizona Senate Must Stop Bill to Repeal Pro-Life Law Protecting Babies From Abortion

The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal the state’s pro-life law which protects almost all unborn children.

The repeal effort now heads to the state Senate – also controlled by Republicans – which can vote on it no earlier than Wednesday, May 1.

The pro-life law, originally passed in 1864, is set to go into effect on June 8. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this month – a move that was unexpectedly criticized by many Republicans including former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, R-AZ.

CBS News reported Wednesday afternoon that “three Republicans joined all the [state House] Democrats in a 32-28 vote to overrule GOP House Speaker Ben Toma [R-Peoria], who twice previously blocked the bill from moving forward.”

The trio of Republicans who voted with the Democrats to repeal the law were state Reps. Tim Dunn, R-Yuma, Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, and Justin Wilmeth, also R-Phoenix.

Republicans currently hold a razor-thin 31-29 majority in the state House. In the state Senate, they hold a similarly narrow 16-14 advantage.

Axios indicated that “[t]wo Republican senators last week voted with Democrats to successfully introduce the legislation” to repeal Arizona’s pro-life law.

Per Axios, the repeal effort which “Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has supported, would reinstate a 2022 law permitting abortions through 15 weeks of pregnancy to the books.”

“Even if Hobbs signs a repeal bill, the [1864 pro-life law] still may temporarily take effect this summer,” Axios’ report continued. “The repeal wouldn’t go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends, and the session has no end date.”

Over the last several weeks – which sources have described as a “stalemate” – Speaker Toma has emerged as a vocal opponent of the repeal effort.

Toma is an immigrant who fled then-Communist Romania as a child in the 1980’s. According to The New York Times, the speaker “said he came to his views [on life] through studying philosophy and bioethics in college.”

In an interview with the Times, Toma explained his advocacy for the unborn. “It comes down to: What do I think is right? What is just? What is ethical?”

“And I have made my decision,” he emphasized. “And I am not going to change my mind.”

The pro-life lawmaker is currently running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th District where incumbent Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-AZ, is not seeking reelection.

The pro-life and pro-family Center for AZ Policy (CAP) blasted the state House’s vote to repeal the law protecting unborn children in a post to X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday.

“Today’s House vote to repeal the pre-Roe law opens the door to great loss of life for unborn children and harm to women,” CAP wrote.

“With the Senate already on record to vote on the repeal, the most protective pro-life law in the country is poised to fall to the appetites of pro-abortion activists,” the organization added.

“The law to limit abortion to cases where the woman’s life is in danger was in effect in January of 1973 when Roe v Wade was wrongly decided and should be in effect today,” CAP went on:

[The pro-life law] was reaffirmed by a bipartisan legislature and the governor in 1977. I applaud those lawmakers who stood boldly for the unborn and their mothers and made the effort today to force [the] Arizona Attorney General to defend the state’s 15-week law if the pre-Roe law was repealed.

LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

ACTION ALERT: Please contact the Arizona Senate and urge all senators to vote NO on repealing the pro-life law.

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