Arizona’s abortion dilemma: Women navigate the constraints of an outdated law – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Arizona‘s Supreme Court has affirmed the enforcement of an 1864 abortion law that prohibits nearly all abortions but the delay in law implementation has given a ray of hope for Piper, who unexpectedly became pregnant.
Upon learning of the Arizona judges’ decision regarding the abortion bill, Piper felt compelled to seek the procedure almost immediately.Despite just discovering her pregnancy she doesn’t have the luxury to give any time to think about that.
“The laws in Arizona are really dicey right now, so I wasn’t sure what would be available to me,” explained Piper, who opted to use a pseudonym to protect her privacy when discussing her decision regarding one of America’s most contentious issues.
What does the Arizona abortion bill ruling say?
In making its ruling this month, the state’s Supreme Court said since the 2022 overturning of Roe vs. Wade — which had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide — Arizona’s own arrangements had to revert to a 160-year-old statute, drafted before it was even a state and when women did not have the right to vote.
Last week, the state’s lower chamber approved a bill to repeal the law, a move made possible by three moderate Republican lawmakers who broke ranks to vote alongside Democrats.
However, the fate of the initiative now rests with the Republican-dominated Senate, where its passage is uncertain, highlighting the willingness of conservative elected officials to diverge from the prevailing nationwide sentiment supporting safe and legal access to abortion.
Is law implemented in state?
After its decision on April 9, the court put its ruling on hold for 14 days, and sent the case back to a lower court to hear additional arguments about the law’s constitutionality. That 14-day pause ended Tuesday, but there is an additional 45-day delay stemming from an order in a separate lawsuit over the ban, according to The New York Times.
Democratic Senator Eva Burch criticized her Republican counterparts for employing severe bans as a deterrent tactic. “It creates a really hostile, inhospitable environment for women where we don’t have any assurance that we’re going to be able to get the care that we need if something goes wrong,” she told AFP.
Burch, 44, emerged as a prominent advocate for abortion rights in Arizona after sharing her personal struggle to obtain the procedure when she discovered her pregnancy was not viable.
Abortion bill role in election
It seems that Abortion will play an important issue as Americans head to the polls in November to elect a president.
Incumbent Joe Biden aims to improve his lagging poll numbers by attributing tightening restrictions to challenger Donald Trump.
In Arizona, voters may be presented with the choice of whether to include the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
Democrats anticipate that this proposition will drive voter turnout, particularly in a state where Biden’s victory margin in 2020 was a mere 10,000 votes.
Gabrielle Goodrick, director of the Camelback Family Planning clinic, believes that the anxiety stirred by abortion bans across the United States will serve as a motivating factor for voters in November.
(With inputs from agency)