NPR’s Leila Fadel speaks with Lawyer Normal Kris Mayes, a Democrat who has vowed to not implement a sweeping abortion ban upheld by the state’s supreme court docket.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We go to Arizona, the place a Civil Warfare period ban on nearly all abortions will quickly be the regulation after a ruling this week by the state’s Supreme Courtroom. Arizona justices revived an 1864 regulation barring all abortions besides in instances the place the mom’s life is in danger. It could exchange the earlier state regulation that allowed abortion by 15 weeks of being pregnant, and there can be no exceptions for rape or incest. It is the newest state ban on abortion because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom reversed Roe v. Wade almost two years in the past, and the state’s legal professional basic says she won’t implement it. Arizona Lawyer Normal Kris Mayes is right here with me now. Good morning.
KRIS MAYES: Good morning.
FADEL: So that you say you are not going to implement this regulation. Why?
MAYES: Effectively, for a variety of causes, we can’t be implementing this regulation. At the start, it’s unconstitutional. It violates our state’s proper to privateness, which is expressly written into our Structure. Secondly, you already know, this is not over by an extended shot. We nonetheless have a possibility over the subsequent 60 days to attempt to get this horrible resolution reversed. It would not take impact instantly. So we have now wherever from 45 to 60 days to attempt to cease this. This factor was handed or written when Arizona wasn’t even a state, girls could not vote and the Civil Warfare was nonetheless raging.
FADEL: However your job, in the end, is to implement regulation. So if it does take impact in 45 to 60 days, do you threat your elected place by selecting to not implement it?
MAYES: No. Undoubtedly not. Look, there are legal guidelines on the books in Arizona and in each state that aren’t enforced. I imply, Arizona has an adultery regulation, a bigamy regulation. These legal guidelines are usually not enforced. And it is my job to guarantee that the sources of my workplace are correctly utilized and spent. And I even have supervisory authority over the state’s 15 county attorneys. And I’ve made it clear that if any of them makes an attempt to prosecute a health care provider or a nurse, a medical skilled or a girl beneath this insane, egregious 1864 abortion ban, that I’ll step in and I’ll cease them, or no less than try to cease them.
FADEL: You stated that this was a seismic resolution. I believe this modifications all the pieces. If you say this modifications all the pieces, what does it change?
MAYES: Effectively, clearly it modifications all the pieces in a horrible manner for Arizona girls and households. However from a political standpoint, that is an absolute earthquake. This can be a 8.0 on the Richter scale. You understand, the Republicans don’t know what’s coming at them in November. You understand, the folks of Arizona – as they need to by the democratic course of – will make it clear that they do not wish to be subjected to an 1864 abortion ban. And so I believe what which means is that the poll initiative that we have now is probably going, nearly definitely, I consider, to move.
FADEL: And that is a poll initiative come November that might enshrine the proper to abortion within the Structure.
MAYES: Precisely.
FADEL: Now, we have seen some Republicans, although, criticizing this ruling, saying it went too far, that it is too excessive – Republican lawmaker David Cook dinner from Arizona saying it must be modified – even criticized by Kari Lake, who ran for Arizona governor on an anti-abortion platform. And what do you make of those criticisms? Is that this a shift?
MAYES: I believe what you hear within the voices of these Republicans is worry. And it is worry of the truth that the folks of Arizona are going to resoundingly reject this within the type of their votes in November. And, you already know, I recognize the truth that there are a number of Republicans who’re keen to say that, however they definitely ought to have and will have stated that a very long time in the past. They might have repealed this at any time over the previous a long time, I suppose. They usually definitely may have repealed it within the final 12 months, however they selected to not. So what I say to them is, slightly too little and slightly too late.
FADEL: Arizona Lawyer Normal Kris Mayes, thanks for becoming a member of us.
MAYES: Thanks.
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