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1. The Arizona abortion ruling: On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a ruling that effectively amounts to an outright ban on abortion in the state.
Citing an 1864(!) law — that’s almost 50 years before Arizona became a state! — the court’s ruling means that anyone providing an abortion within state lines could be subject to between 2 and 5 years in prison. It also establishes life as present at the moment of conception and makes no exceptions for victims who become pregnant as a result of rape or incest.
As the New York Times wrote of the decision:
The Arizona Supreme Court said that because the federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade had been overturned, there was no federal or state law preventing Arizona from enforcing the near-total ban on abortions, which had sat dormant for decades.
The ruling could prompt clinics in Arizona to stop providing abortions and women to travel to nearby states like California, New Mexico or Colorado to end their pregnancies. Until now the procedure has been legal in Arizona through 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Democrats immediately seized on the ruling as evidence of Republicans’ priorities on the issue. (All 7 of the Arizona state Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican governors.)
“This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom,” said President Joe Biden in a statement.
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