The all-Republican Arizona state Supreme Court decided in a 4-2 vote that a law from 1864 which bans abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger is in full effect. They gleefully proclaimed, “[P]hysicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal.”
Here are some things I learned today that put this 1864 law into perspective for me.
In 1864
- A single man wrote the law that is about to be enforced in AZ
- AZ wasn’t even a state yet, it was a territory that would become a state many years later (1912)
- The Emancipation Proclamation had been announced only one year prior
- There were no cars, tv, radio, electricity, penicillin, birth control, anesthesia, space travel, or computers
- Women couldn’t vote
- Minorities couldn’t vote
- Doctors used horsehair for stitching wounds
- Doctors stored their instruments unwashed in velvet lined cases
- The 1864 criminal code’s reference to “miscarriage” was written within the context of male misbehavior
- The code focuses at length on dueling
- The law addresses poisoning (which is the part of the law being resurrected)
- The law also addresses cutting out tongues or eyes, slitting noses or lips, and rendering useless someone’s arms or legs
- Another law of the day made sure that “no black or mulatto, or Indian, Mongolian, or Asiatic, shall be permitted to [testify in court] against any white person”
- Another law of the day made sure that “all marriages between a white person and a [Black person], shall…be absolutely void”
- Another law of the day made sure that the age of female consent for sexual intercourse was ten years old
I learned something else that put this 1864 law into perspective for me: it’s 2024. There are cars, tv, radio, electricity, penicillin, birth control, anesthesia, space travel, and computers. And best of all?
In 2024
- Women can vote
May they turn out in droves, may their rights be protected, and may their voices be heard ringing loud and clear from sea to shining sea.
