White House blasts Arizona Supreme Court abortion decision
Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has the latest on the state's near total abortion ban on 'Special Report.'
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) on Tuesday called out Republican lawmakers who retreated from a state Supreme Court ruling that revived a 160-year-old, pre-statehood law that criminalizes abortion.
Hobbs told CNN host Anderson Cooper that Arizonans are "reeling" from the decision, which reinstated a near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. She called the decision "very harmful" and noted that she had urged lawmakers to repeal the "archaic ban" when she first assumed office.
"I renewed that call at the beginning of this legislative session," Hobbs said. "The fact is that some of the Republicans right now who are saying that this decision went too far are the same politicians who celebrated the Dobbs decision, which paved the way for this court ruling today.
ARIZONA SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs gives a brief speech prior to President Joe Biden's remarks at the Tempe Center for the Arts on Sept. 28, 2023, in Tempe, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
"And the speaker of the House and the Senate president both weighed in, in this case, with an amicus brief, urging the court to do exactly what it did today," she added.
The Arizona Supreme Court delivered a 4-2 ruling Tuesday that said the 1864 law — passed when Arizona was a territory and codified in 1913 when it became a state — is "now enforceable" after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Demonstrators during a Women's March rally in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. The annual march took place ahead of the anniversary of the US Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling enshrining a women's right to abortion, which was overturned in 2022. (Caitlin O'Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The state court rejected arguments that a 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022 should be enforced instead, finding that the more recent law "does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority for, an abortion that repeals or restricts" the 1913 law.
The Civil War-era law makes it a felony for anyone who "provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life," potentially carrying a prison sentence between 2 and 5 years.
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A 160-year-old ban on abortion is now enforceable in Arizona. Pictured is an abortion clinic in Idaho. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Hobbs on Tuesday called on the state legislature "to do the right thing now and repeal this 1864 ban and protect access to reproductive care."
Cooper asked the governor about an executive order she signed last year that restricts county attorneys from prosecuting women and doctors for receiving and performing abortions.
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Hobbs said her order is "legally sound" and expressed hope that it would survive a legal challenge.
"This ban, this extreme ban, is going to prevent people from getting care that they need," Hobbs said.
Fox News Digital's Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
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