PHOENIX (CN) — The Arizona Legislature is now one step closer to repealing the Civil War-era abortion ban reinstated by the state Supreme Court two weeks ago.
In the third day of legislation on the House floor since the high court’s decision, three Republican representatives breached party solidarity Wednesday and voted alongside Democrats, swinging the body to a 32-28 vote in favor of the repeal.
Republican Representatives Matt Gress and Justin Wilmeth of Phoenix, and Tim Dunn of Yuma each voted to support House Bill 2677, sponsored by Democrat Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton of Tucson. If passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, the bill would cleanly repeal the ban, which includes exceptions only to save the life of the mother but not in the case of rape or incest.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Gress called the ban “unworkable and out of line with the values of Arizonans.”
“As someone who is both pro-life and the product of strong women in my life, I refuse to buy into the false notion pushed by the extremes on both sides of this issue that we cannot respect and protect women and defend new life at the same time,” he wrote following Wednesday's vote. “I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take up this matter quickly.”
The three dissenting Republicans left the floor soon after adjournment without making public statements. None have responded immediately to email requests for comment.
After passing the bill, Gress made a separate motion to ensure the bill would be transmitted to the Senate immediately, which failed in a 30-30 vote as Dunn and Wilmeth quietly stepped back over the party line.
House members on both sides said it’s unclear whether that vote was necessary, or whether House Speaker Ben Toma has the power to withhold the bill from the Senate. Typically, bills are transmitted to the opposite chamber within a day of their vote.
Toma, a Republican from Glendale, seemed offended by that notion, announcing as the House adjourned that both Gress and Democrat state Representative Oscar De Los Santos of Laveen, who seconded Gress’s motion, are removed from the House Committee on Appropriations effective immediately.
De Los Santos said on the floor that the move is a clear attempt to threaten, which he says won’t work.
“I will not be intimidated,” he said. “I will not be silenced. We will not stop fighting for the people of Arizona. We will not stop fighting to protect reproductive freedom.”
Toma refused to explain why the lawmakers were removed.
Republican state Representative Alexander Kolodin of Scottsdale denounced Gress and the other dissenting Republicans for betraying their party and called on voters to "punish" them for it in November.
Kolodin and other Republicans said they were disgusted by the vote, comparing abortion to slavery.
“The GOP was founded to prevent the spread of the dehumanizing institution of slavery on free soil," he said. "It was founded to protect the dignity of every living person.”
Republican State Representative Barbara Parker compared abortion to school shootings.
“As long as we teach our children it is OK to kill children in the womb, we will never be able to convince them that it is not OK to kill children in the classroom,” she said in an impassioned speech. “Let that sink in.”
The territorial ban, first enacted decades before Arizona was a state or any women could vote, became viable again following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That decision overturned 50 years of precedent set by the high court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion issue to the power of the states.
After two years of litigation, the Arizona Supreme Court declared it the law of the land.
Twice since that 4-2 decision on April 9, House Republicans stopped a vote that would suspend House rules to allow the bill to be heard on the floor absent an official committee hearing process, as the Republican majority refused to give the bill a hearing all session. But Republicans weren't able to hold off the vote forever.
Over in the state Senate, a mirror repeal bill received a second reading Wednesday, but can’t be voted on until next week.
The ban is set to go into effect on June 8. If a repeal is successful, it wouldn’t be taken off the books for 90 days after the legislative session ends.
Repealing the ban through the legislature isn’t the only option. State Attorney General Kris Mayes formally asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on Tuesday. The court has no deadline by which it needs to respond, but it may ask the other side to respond to the motion for reconsideration.
Arizonans are also pushing a voter initiative that, if supported by the majority of voters in November, would enshrine in the state constitution the right to receive an abortion up to the time of fetal viability, which is typically 23 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. The initiative has already received more than 500,000 signatures.
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