Now Trump can’t sidestep his key role in banning abortions

Friends,

Today, Arizona’s highest court, in a 4-to-2 decision, upheld an Arizona law dating from 1864 that bans nearly all abortions.

The law, which was on the books long before Arizona achieved statehood, outlaws abortion from the moment of conception, except when necessary to save the life of the mother. It makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors prosecuted under the law could face fines and prison terms of two to five years.

The ruling should make Trump squirm. In trying to escape direct responsibility for overturning Roe v. Wade — a decision that has proven extraordinarily unpopular, even in so-called red states — Trump has retreated from his tentative national abortion ban after 15 weeks. He said yesterday that he thought abortion rights should be left up to the states to decide.

The fact is, nearly two-thirds of Americans support legal abortion in most or all cases. To leave abortion rights up to the states is not only to give state legislatures broad discretion to restrict and limit the bodily autonomy of anyone within their borders but also give it to state courts — as in Arizona.

In overturning Roe, Trump’s Supreme Court directly invited Arizona’s total ban.

After all, the Arizona Supreme Court based its decision on the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe. The Arizona court stated that because the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion, there was now no federal or state law stopping Arizona from enforcing its old near-total abortion ban, which had sat dormant for decades. Hence, without a federal right, Arizona has no choice but to enforce the law on the books.

It’s all Trump’s doing. In 2016, during a debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump pledged to remake the U.S. Supreme Court with nominees who were against abortion. “The justices that I am going to appoint will be pro-life,” he promised. Later in that debate, Trump predicted his nominees would help deliver the end of Roe v. Wade. “Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that will happen. That will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”

Trump’s “pro-life” justices did end Roe — thereby leaving it up to the states whether to ban abortion. So Arizona has now resurrected its 1864 law that did just that. Trump can’t escape responsibility.