On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) explained how the Arizona Supreme Court came to its ruling on abortion, and condemned the decision.
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NewsTranscript
00:00On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a law from 1864 that bans nearly all abortions.
00:09I want to start with a very simple but perhaps complicated question.
00:13How exactly did this come to pass?
00:15Well, it is a dark day in Arizona, a dark day that will hurt women across our state.
00:23Women, their lives will be at risk because of this legal decision.
00:29But not just a legal decision, the political decisions that led up to it.
00:33So what happened is that Arizona has had this law on the books since 1864 that is a near
00:40total ban on abortion, no exceptions for rape and incest.
00:45When Roe v. Wade was passed by the United States Supreme Court, when that was the decision
00:50of the United States Supreme Court, it put a stay on this 1864 law.
00:55Over the years, the Arizona legislature has put some restrictions on access to abortion
01:01services for women across Arizona, but they never, ever repealed the 1864 law.
01:08And in a very cynical move, just a couple of years ago, the legislature passed a 15-week
01:14ban with no exception for rape or incest.
01:17But they specifically put in a provision that said the 1864 law is not preempted.
01:24It did so at the request of some very right-wing organizations that were hoping the Supreme
01:29Court would overturn Roe, and therefore the 1864 law would still be in place.
01:35Sadly and tragically, that's exactly how this played out.
01:39They never preempted the 1864 law.
01:42The Supreme Court did issue the Dobbs decision overruling Roe v. Wade, and therefore this
01:491864 law went into place.
01:53This was challenged by Planned Parenthood and others saying that the 15-week ban should
01:57be the law in Arizona, but the Arizona Supreme Court just yesterday issued its ruling saying
02:04this territorial law that was passed even before Arizona became a state, at a time when
02:11women could not even vote, when Native Americans were not considered fully human under law
02:20in the United States.
02:22A law from that time period is now the law of the land again in the state of Arizona.
02:28And that's why it's a dark day in our state.
02:31How soon does this go into effect?
02:33Because there have been reports that the state attorney general has said that she will not
02:37enforce it.
02:38She is against this.
02:40There's of course the ballot measure that we can talk about in a little bit, but effectively
02:46this news came this week, so do abortions stop immediately or do folks have some time?
02:51Okay, this is under legal dispute as well.
02:54Certainly the Supreme Court gave I think a 15-day period for the plaintiff organizations
03:00to go back to the trial court and see if the trial court would stay the opinion for any
03:06reason.
03:07That's 15 days.
03:08There was an agreement earlier on in this litigation under a previous attorney general
03:12that would add an additional 45 days after any final decision before it would go into
03:17order.
03:18So most people think 60 days is the time period where this becomes actually in place in the
03:26state of Arizona.
03:27And yes, we do have a very important initiative on the ballot in Arizona that would restore
03:33the protections under Roe v. Wade in the Arizona Constitution.
03:39And I support that and I think it's the right thing.
03:41I think now the voters of Arizona, to the extent there was any question, are going to
03:47overwhelmingly support this initiative to send a strong message that when it comes to
03:53civil and constitutional rights, including this right to abortion services, which has
03:57been in place for 50 years before the Dobbs decision, it was settled law in this country.
04:05First time in America we've gone backwards on constitutional rights.
04:09We're going to restore that right and send a message that in our country, we go forwards
04:13on civil and constitutional rights, not backwards.