PHOENIX — President Joe Biden said the Arizona Supreme Court's decision to reinstitute a pre-statehood abortion law will allow a "cruel" and "dangerous" ban to take effect.
The state court ruled Tuesday that an Arizona law dating back to the Civil War could remain in effect, effectively prohibiting all elective abortions in the state unless the woman's life was in jeopardy.
In a statement, the president disparaged the 160-year-old law and promised to protect reproductive rights.
"Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest," Biden said in a statement. "This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote."
Biden further called upon Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade for women in every state. The U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe in 2022, which opened the door for Arizona's 1864 law to go back into effect.
One Republican politician in the state has called for repealing the 1864 near-total abortion ban.
State Rep. Matt Gress, R-District 4, said the court's decision "cannot stand" and believes the 15-week abortion policy with reasonable exceptions is appropriate for the state.
"We need laws that respect women and the difficult decision to end a pregnancy in the early stages, before the fetus can feel pain or live outside the womb. And we need to ensure access to contraceptives and IVF," Gress said.
U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-District 6, said Tuesday's court ruling was a "disaster" for women and called upon state lawmakers to address the "archaic" law.
Republican Kari Lake, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said Tuesday the "pre-statehood law is out of step with Arizonans" and called for a "common sense solution." Lake has previously called abortion the "ultimate sin" and supported banning abortion pills, according to the Associated Press.
Other Democratic leaders in Arizona have spoken out against the court's recent decision.
"This cannot stand. We will not stay silent in the face of these outrageous attacks on our fundamental freedoms. In Congress, I’ll keep fighting to restore the protections under Roe v. Wade as the law of the land," said U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly called the 1864 law "backwards."
“This disastrous decision sets women’s rights in our state back two centuries and means that Arizona women have now lost the right to an abortion," Kelly said in a statement. "It will criminalize doctors for doing their jobs providing the most appropriate care to patients, which will undoubtedly have a devastating effect on the health and freedom of Arizona women and families."
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