Arizona Governor, AG, at odds with local prosecutors
Gov. Katie Hobbs has called for centralized enforcement of abortion laws
Arizona’s situation surrounding abortion has evolved to pit statewide elected officials against local prosecutors who want to enforce a constitutionally questionable ban on the procedure.
At the end of June, Democratic Gov. Kattie Hobbs signed an executive order that centralized abortion prosecutions with the attorney general’s office. The AG is another Democrat Kris Mayes, who promised to not enforce the ban in question. Twelve of Arizona’s 15 district attorneys have challenged the executive order.
Amy Fitch-Heacock, co-founder of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom, said they felt pretty confident that the order will stand because of the amount of research that went into the order.
“We'll see what happens,” Fitch-Heacock said. “We'll see if it plays out in the courts.”
Arizona has a ban that was signed into law in 1864, during its time as a territory instead of a state. That law had portions redacted and repealed after activists got clarity from the court system. There is also the 15-week ban that was passed in December 2022 that bans abortions after 15 weeks with exceptions for medical emergencies in which the life of the mother was at risk. Any physician who breaks that law is punished for a felony. Hobbs's decision means that enforcement of any law will come from the attorney general office instead of the prosecutors.
Republicans in the state legislature threatened to hold up any of Hobbs's appointees unless she rescinds the ban. But they had already been doing that, said Fitch-Heacock.
Arizona activists have two goals for 2024. The first is to pass a constitutional amendment through a ballot initiative that protects abortion access. The other is to flip the state legislature to Democratic control for the first time in 40 years.
Feminist and Democratic leaders see Arizona as a winnable state for the presidential election and for reproductive causes. It’s received decent funding as a result. Last year, they fell short of the number of signatures needed to get a ballot initiative in place. But they started later than normal since it only began after the Dobbs decision.
“We will have a massive ground movement to get those signatures that we need in order to get it to qualify for the ballot,” Fitch-Heacock said. “That is all going very, very well. We have enormous support. We have financial resources that did not exist in 2022, just given the quick turnaround. So that's all very promising.”
It will be interesting to see what happens with the state legislature. Some of the districts had been gerrymandered heavily in favor of Republicans. But Democratic activists managed to flip one district to their control. Others were within a 3 percent difference in voters’ decisions. If activists succeed there, it may be worth it for national democratic operatives to model messaging and campaigning used elsewhere on the strategies employed in Arizona.
“We have to focus on 2024,” Fitch-Heacock said. “We have to remember that if we do not make games, they will take more of our freedoms away.”