Washington, DC — Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled to uphold a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes made it clear that this fight is far from over, and as long as she is AG, no patient or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law. 

REMINDER: AG Mayes won her race in 2022 against an anti-abortion extremist by only 280 votes. Who voters elect as their state attorney general matters for abortion rights. More state attorney general races are on the ballot in 2024. Who voters elect in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and more could affect the future of abortion access for millions of Americans.

This morning, AG Mayes joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss, stating, “It’s insane, it’s egregious, it’s an affront to our freedom. […] I have said that I will not prosecute any woman, doctor, pharmacist, nurse, or individual who helps a woman to seek an abortion or reproductive access. I have also said that we are looking for everything we can right now from a legal standpoint to prevent this decision from going into effect.”

AG Mayes added, “The good news is, you know, I am a pro-choice, pro-abortion rights Attorney General. We have them in California, we have them in Nevada, [and] New Mexico. And so we have this opportunity where if that kind of a situation were to happen if a young girl were to be raped and become pregnant and we need to get her out of the state, I believe that we could get her out of the state, and we would do everything we could.” She continued, “We would also fight in court to prevent her from being exposed and from this law being imposed on her so there’s a difference here, which is you have a Democratic AG in me who’s going to do everything I can to fight to the imposition of this law from 1864 on that situation on that young girl. And we’ve got surrounding states that want to help as I said, the states have already reached out to me to see how they can help.”

In an interview yesterday with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, AG Mayes said, “This is an existential crisis for our residents. Millions of Arizonans—men and women, Republicans, Democrats, Independents—woke up this morning to a decision that drags us back to 1864. Though I have said I will not prosecute anyone under this draconian law.” She continued, “We obviously know it’s going to have a chilling effect on reproductive access, reproductive health care access, on abortion access, and I’ve already had attorneys general from other states reach out to me to offer their help, and had the Vice President of the United States reach out to me today to offer her help. This is a crisis for our state.”

Yesterday, AG Mayes also joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, she said, “Here’s the fact of the matter — this is a law that essentially violates our constitution in Arizona, the right to privacy in Arizona. And we also know that we have an opportunity at least in the next couple of months to try to fight the courts and to take additional steps in the courts. And the other thing, Wolf, that’s really important to remember is that the people of Arizona are going to have the final say over this because we have a ballot measure on the ballot in November, and I think that the people of Arizona are going to overwhelmingly approve that ballot measure, which will enshrine the right to an abortion and reproductive rights in our constitution.” She continued, “So I am not going to enforce an unconstitutional abortion ban until the people of Arizona have the right to have the ability to get to that ballot initiative.”

AG Mayes emphasized, “I think it’s important to remember, Wolf, that it was Donald Trump and the United States Supreme Court who are responsible for overturning Roe and Dobbs and that’s why we got to this point. That’s how we got to the point where an Arizona Supreme Court could reimpose an 1864 ban on the people of my great state.”

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