It seems that everyone is talking about abortion. Some are suggesting that a pro-life Arizona law was last thought of in the 1800s and then suddenly reappeared and caught everyone by surprise. But the opposite is true. So let’s consider the factsincluding past support for the law by flip-flopping politicians who now seek to destroy it.
Arizona state law has always prohibited physicians from killing a pregnant mother’s child in an elective abortion but allowed for medical care “ necessary to save her life.” Why? One reason, according to an Arizona court in 1973, was the “belief in the right to life and the necessity of preserving human life.” That court upheld Arizona’s pro-life law, but then the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision made it unenforceable.
While
most states repealed their pre-
Roe laws protecting unborn children, Arizona chose to
re-codify its pro-life law. So when changes at the U.S. Supreme Court made some believe that
Roe might “
be overturned in the not-too-distant future,” pro-abortion legislators in Arizona introduced bill after bill to eliminate the pro-life law lest it become enforceable again. And year after year2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023the legislative majority
rejected those repeal attempts.
In fact, the legislature not only defeated the repeal attempts, but explicitly embraced the targeted pro-life law and the principle it represents: that unborn children’s right to life should be protected from conception.
Specifically, a
2021 law addressing unborn children “at every stage of development” expressed what the Arizona Supreme Court
called “the state’s public policy essentially to restrict abortion to the extent permitted.” Then, in
2022 , as the
Dobbs case that ultimately overturned
Roe was pending, the legislature acted to protect unborn children after 15 weeks’ gestation in case
Roe remained partially intact. But the 15-week bill explicitly provided that it was
not repealing the pro-life law blocked by
Roe .
So although some dismissively call the pro-life law a “territorial law” or the “1864 law,” the legislature actually reembraced it in 2022. And for good reason. As Cathi Herrod, President of Center for Arizona Policy,
explained to an Arizona Senate Committee considering the 15-week bill, “if the Court overturns
Roe ,... our pre-
Roe law outlawing abortion except to save the life of the mother would go into effect.”
As expected, after
Dobbs fully overturned
Roe in 2022, litigation started almost immediately regarding the enforceability of the pre-
Roe law. So it has long been known that Arizona’s law protecting the unborn could return to full effect. And it was the express desire of the legislature that it wouldpotentially saving the lives of
over 10,000 innocent children
each year in Arizona.
But now that unborn children could finally receive legal protection from abortionists who profit by killing, a handful of legislators who called themselves “pro-life” are imitating Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariotbetraying their stated loyalties and the lives of others.
With this traitorous push for the repeal of the longstanding pro-life law by some who once embraced it, the House has already
voted for the bloodshed of thousands of children each year. And now it is up to the Senate to determine whether it will also support the brutal killing by voting for repeal.
All eyes are on Senators Shawnna
Bolick and Thomas “T.J.”
Shope . They must decide whether to continue in their deadly treachery or hold true to their prior
public proclamation that they support “prohibiting abortion except when it is necessary to prevent the death of the mother.”
It’s not too late for Bolick and Shopewho voted for the 2021 and 2022 pro-life laws mentioned aboveto do what is right and courageously defend unborn children’s right to life at this critical moment. If they choose instead to betray their voters and the children they were elected to defend, the harm will be incalculable. They will effectively sentence to death thousands of precious, innocent childreneven children whose hearts have beat over
10 million times and who yawn, stretch, respond to stimuli, and use their fingers to explore their environment.
Rarely does one’s decision mean life or death for thousands. But those are the stakes as Bolick, Shope, and their Senate colleagues deliberate. May they choose life.
Samuel Green serves as President & General Counsel of Reason for Life and filed two friend-of-the-court briefs at the Arizona Supreme Court in support of Arizona’s pro-life law. Follow Samuel on X (formerly Twitter) @ProLifeSamuel .
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