Democrats and Republicans made the right to abortion, during the last hours, a relevant issue in the face of the next presidential elections in the US, after the prohibition of abortion in Arizona (south) by the Supreme Court of that state.
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Last Tuesday, that body vetoed abortion almost completely -except in that case in which it could mean saving the life of a pregnant woman-, outlawed the procedure and set penalties of up to five years in prison for non-compliance. He did so by recovering an 1864 law that was challenged in 1971.
At the end of a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, a journalist asked President Joe Biden his opinion about what happened in Arizona. The president, who will seek reelection with the Democratic Party and is in favor of maintaining a federal protection of the right to abortion, said: "Choose me, I live in the 21st century".
Earlier, the Democrats had called the decision of the Arizona Supreme Court cruel and meant that the extremism of the Republican agenda aims to take away women’s freedom of choice.
In a statement, the White House said: "Millions of people in Arizona will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which does not protect women even when their health is in danger or in tragic cases of rape or incest".
In turn, Arizona Attorney General and Democrat Kris Mayes judged that the state Supreme’s decision is an affront to freedom. " Make no mistake, by overturning a law passed this century and replacing it with one from 160 years ago, the Court has endangered the health and lives of the citizens of Arizona."
For his part, former President Donald Trump, an eventual Republican candidate for next November’s elections, assessed that the Arizona Supreme Court has gone too far. He felt that the state authorities will surely solve the matter, although he pointed out that "it is the rights of the state".
Trump has previously made it clear that he advocates that each state should have the abortion legislation it considers.
In May 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court-composed mostly of Republicans who came to that court during the Trump Administration (2017-2021)-overturned the Roe v. Wade case, which abolished federal protection of that right and allowed each state to restrict or prohibit it.
According to media reports, the Arizona Supreme Court interpreted that in the absence of the federal constitutional right to abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting the application of the 1864 law, which it considered applicable. The ban will come into effect within two weeks.