PHOENIX — This weekend marks the beginning of the end for Arizona's 160-year-old, near-total abortion ban.
There was a possibility the ban would be enforceable for a brief period in the fall, in the run-up to the presidential election.
That's no longer the case. Here's why:
- The end of this year's legislative session at the Capitol on Saturday night will trigger the effective date for all new laws 90 days later. About 9 p.m. Saturday, lawmakers cast the final bipartisan votes on the new state budget for the next 12 months.
- One of those new laws is the repeal of the 1864 ban. With the end of the legislative session on Saturday, the repeal's effective date will be around Sept. 13.
- The Arizona Supreme Court had ruled in April that the pre-statehood ban was enforceable. A subsequent ruling delayed enforcement until Sept. 27, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office. By that date, the ban will have been repealed.
"That looks to be the the timeline, and that's good news, Attorney General Kris Mayes said during an interview for this weekend's "Sunday Square Off."
"We were concerned about the possibility that the ...session would creep out such that the ban would take effect."
Arizona's current abortion law, enacted in 2022, bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The only exception is for a "medical emergency"; there's no exception for cases of rape or incest.
What constitutes a "medical emergency'' has prompted four Democratic lawmakers to ask Mayes for an expedited legal opinion.
"Doctors are every day being faced with terrible decisions about whether they can provide a medically necessary abortion to save the life of a mother," Mayes said.
Mayes said an emergency room doctor had asked her, "'How close to death do I have to allow (a patient) to get before I can avoid being prosecuted under the 15-week abortion ban?' That is a crazy question for him to have to ask me."
The legal opinion is expected within 30 days.
