Kelly Statement on Arizona Supreme Court Restoring 1864 Total Abortion Ban

Today, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly released the following statement after the Arizona Supreme Court voted to reinstitute an 1864 law—written before Arizona was a state—that effectively bans all abortions in the state:  

“This disastrous decision sets women’s rights in our state back two centuries and means that Arizona women have now lost the right to an abortion. It will criminalize doctors for doing their jobs providing the most appropriate care to patients, which will undoubtedly have a devastating effect on the health and freedom of Arizona women and families. And it’s just not who we are as Arizonans,” said Kelly. “This backwards law may have been written 160 years ago, but it’s going to be reinstated because of politicians who worked to overturn Roe v. Wade and its protections for abortion rights. I know this is a difficult day for so many Arizonans, and trust that I’m going to fight as hard as ever to restore reproductive rights so that Arizona women can once again make these decisions for themselves.”  

Kelly is a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would write almost 50 years of precedent for abortion protections under Roe v. Wade into law, and joined a brief in support of upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s longstanding authority to approve and regulate mifepristone—an abortion and miscarriage management medication that has been used safely and effectively for over 20 years. Kelly also helped introduce legislation to provide a consistent and strong source of funding for the Title X Family Planning Program.