(RepublicanNews.org) – Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed an executive order on June 23rd severely limiting abortion-related prosecutions.
The order bans state agencies from assisting abortion-related prosecutions by law enforcement in other states. The order also bans the extradition of people who are accused of breaking abortion laws in other states.
Arizona State Attorney General Kris Mayes now has the sole power to handle any attempted abortion-related prosecution under state law. The executive order was signed on June 23rd, just one day before the one-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
The 6-3 ruling from the High Court allowed the issue of abortion to be returned to the states, prompting GOP-led states to outlaw abortion outright. Many GOP-led states also had statutes outlawing abortions on the books before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. These statutes were never repealed, allowing them to automatically become legal after the nearly 50-year-old precedent was overturned.
In a tweet announcing the executive order, Hobbs said that she would not allow “extreme and out of touch politicians” to violate the “fundamental rights of Arizonans.”
Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for the anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom, told Newsmax that the Arizona governor’s “attempt to undermine county attorney’s legal responsibility to prosecute crimes” is proof that she will do whatever it takes to “protect abortion businesses.”
Theriot also said that women deserve “real health care and support” when dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, insisting that unborn children have the right to life.
In Arizona, abortions are legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy under its 2022 law. The state court of appeals later upheld the law in December after those disputing the law cited an old law from 1864 banning the practice entirely before Arizona acquired statehood.
In March, the Alliance Defending Freedom has since asked the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn the ruling and ban abortion in all instances except for when a mother’s life is threatened by the pregnancy.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanNews.org
