'A higher moral law': Republicans openly defy Arizona's abortion amendment and their oaths of office
More than 60% of Arizona voters chose to make abortion a right two years ago, but Republican lawmakers continue to push ways to ban it — and they say that ignoring the mandate from their constituents is the right thing to do.
In 2024, the landslide victory of Proposition 139 enshrined abortion in the Arizona Constitution. It explicitly prohibits the passage or enforcement of any laws that unnecessarily restrict access to the procedure. Reproductive rights advocates have successfully used the voter-approved initiative in court to overturn a 15 week gestational ban and several laws intended to make it harder for women to terminate a pregnancy during the first trimester, including a mandatory 24-hour delay.
And yet Republicans, who hold a majority in the state legislature, have introduced more than a dozen bills just this year aimed at hindering access to abortion or that seek to create a legal framework endowing fetuses with personhood which could outright ban it in the future.
During a Thursday morning news conference held in partnership with Arizona Right to Life, Republican legislators committed to keep backing and proposing anti-abortion bills, despite the conflict with the state constitution. Surrounded by a crowd of anti-abortion activists holding graphic posters comparing the procedure to murder and rape, Rep. Lisa Fink acknowledged that abortion is now a legal right in Arizona.
https://azmirror.com/2026/03/26/a-higher-moral-law-republicans-openly-defy-arizonas-abortion-amendment-and-their-oaths-of-office/
= new reply since forum marked as read
