Republican Defenders of Abortion in Arizona

THOUGH STILL ON the books, Arizona’s near-total ban on abortion was buried deep in the state’s history—until recently.

- Elizabeth Nolan Brown

An April decision from the state’s Supreme Court breathed new life into this long-dormant law.

The ban in question—first passed by the territory of Arizona in 1864 and later codified into Arizona state law—mandated two to five years’ prison time for intentionally acting “to procure the miscarriage” of a pregnant woman “unless it is necessary to save her life.”

This law became unenforceable in 1973 when Roe v. Wade recognized a federal right to an abortion. Since then, the state passed a number of new abortion restrictions, including a March 2022 law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation “except in a medical emergency.” So when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, no one in Arizona knew which state abortion rules to follow.

Mark Brnovich, then the state’s attorney general, sought to enforce the more extreme 1864 ban. This led to a legal clash with Planned Parenthood Arizona, which argued that the old ban was superseded by newer laws.