Republican ‘turncoats’ cop abortion flak
Arizona lawmakers who backed appealing 1864 ban face blizzard of insults.
State Rep Matt Gress, a Republican in a moderate slice of Phoenix, was in line at his neighbourhood coffee shop on Thursday when a customer stopped and thanked him for voting to repeal an 1864 law that bans abortion in Arizona. “I know you’re taking some heat,” he told Mr Gress.
More than some.
Shortly after the repeal bill squeaked through the Arizona House on Wednesday with support from every Democrat, as well as Mr Gress and two other Republicans, anti-abortion activists denounced Mr Gress on social media as a baby killer, coward and traitor.
The Republican House speaker booted Mr Gress off a spending committee. And some Democrats dismissed his stance as a bid to appease swing voters furious over the ban during an election year.
In an interview, Mr Gress said that he was trying to chart a middle path through a wrenching debate over abortion that has consumed Arizona politics in the two weeks since the state Supreme Court revived the Civil War-era ban.
“There are extremes on both ends here,” he said. “To go from abortion being legal and constitutionally protected to nearly a complete ban overnight is not something that the electorate is going to be OK with.”
Mr Gress, 35, a former teacher and school board member, worked as a budget director under Arizona’s previous governor, Republican Doug Ducey.
He was first elected in 2022 to represent a swathe of Phoenix and Scottsdale that spreads from middle-class neighbourhoods through strip malls, desert parks and wealthy gated communities.
He speaks with the measured cadences of someone who has appeared on plenty of news programmes and had focused his attention on homelessness and teacher pay before abortion erupted into an all-consuming legislative battle.
On Thursday, some voters in Mr Gress’ district praised him for helping to get the repeal bill through the House. Josh Offenhartz, a 36-yearold lawyer, said he believed that life began at conception but agreed with former president Bill Clinton’s position that abortion should be safe, legal and rare — not banned altogether.
“I don’t believe a draconian law from the 19th century should tell us what to do today,” he said.
But Diana and Marco Collins, a retired couple who recently moved to the Phoenix area, said they were disgusted by the repeal vote and upset with the Republicans who sided with Democrats. As devoted Christians, they said they viewed abortion as genocide.
“It’s about my faith,” Diana Collins, 56, said. “We’ve totally put God out.”
The state Senate was expected to vote on repealing the 1864 ban on Wednesday, and lawmakers say the bill appears to have enough Republican support to pass. Gov Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has been urging lawmakers to pass the repeal and said that she would sign it.
For years, Democrats said, Republican lawmakers in Arizona steadfastly opposed their efforts to undo the 1864 ban. Most Republicans voted against the repeal on Wednesday.
But the political ground shifted this month after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the 1864 ban. A handful of Arizona Republicans quickly put out statements criticising the ruling, worried about the blowback from voters who called it archaic and extreme.
Former president Donald Trump, who has taken credit for the overturning of the constitutional right to abortion, urged Arizona’s legislators to repeal the ban. So did Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate and Mr Trump ally who once called it a “great law.”
The law outlaws abortion from conception except to save the mother’s life and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. It has been on hold since the court’s decision and is not expected to take effect until at least June.
Some Arizona Republicans who broke with their party said they had worried that leaving the 1864 ban in place would supercharge voter support for a ballot measure to add abortion protections to the state constitution.
Rep Tim Dunn, a Republican from the farming county of Yuma, said he voted for a repeal in the hopes that doing so would complicate the abortion options for voters in November.
If the 1864 law is repealed, lawmakers say that abortions in the state will be allowed until the 15th week of pregnancy under a partial ban passed by Republicans in 2022.
That 15-week ban has largely been in place since the Roe v Wade abortion decision was overturned. Several Republicans have called the 15-week ban a reasonable middle ground, but critics say it sets an arbitrary cutoff and contains no exceptions for rape or incest.