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Arizona lawmakers voted on Wednesday to repeal an abortion ban that first became law when Abraham Lincoln was president and a half-century before women won the right to vote. A bill to repeal the law passed, 16-14, in the Republican-controlled State Senate with the support of every Democratic senator and two Republicans who broke with anti-abortion conservatives in their own party. The vote was the culmination of a fevered effort to repeal the law that has made abortion a central focus of Arizona’s politics. The issue has galvanized Democratic voters and energized a campaign to put an abortion-rights ballot measure before Arizona voters in November. On the right, it created a rift between anti-abortion activists who want to keep the law in place and Republican politicians who worry about the political backlash that could be prompted by support of a near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Persons: Abraham Lincoln, Katie Hobbs Organizations: Republican, Senate, Democratic, Republicans, Gov, Democrat, Arizona Locations: Arizona

☆ How Six-Week Abortion Bans Went From Fringe to Reality
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Jess Bidgood | More About Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just over a decade ago, six-week abortion bans were seen as too radical even by many members of the anti-abortion movement, who worried they carried too much political and legal risk. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, cuts off access to the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant, leaving millions of women in the South hundreds of miles from a clinic offering abortion. The ban represents another victory for the true believers of the anti-abortion movement that seek sharp curbs on the procedure. But when such a ban was first introduced, mainstream abortion opponents who preferred gradually chipping away at abortion rights felt such restrictions could backfire and undermine their broader goals. I asked her how the six-week ban moved from the fringe to the mainstream — and why those early warnings from anti-abortion allies might be coming true now.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Elizabeth Dias, Lisa Lerer, Roe, Wade Organizations: Gov, Republican Locations: Florida

Arizona took a major step on Wednesday toward scrapping an 1864 law banning abortion, when three Republican lawmakers in the state House of Representatives broke ranks with their party and voted with Democrats to repeal the ban. Republican leaders had thwarted earlier repeal efforts in the two weeks since the Arizona Supreme Court ignited a political firestorm by reviving the Civil War-era law, which outlaws abortions from the moment of conception except to save the mother’s life. “The people of Arizona are waiting for us to get this done,” said Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, a Democrat, who introduced the one-sentence bill to undo the 1864 law. Many voters denounced the ban — which provides no exceptions for cases of rape or incest — as a draconian intrusion into women’s rights. And some Republicans — including former President Donald J. Trump — said they wanted the Legislature to scrap it quickly, to try to head off a possible election-year backlash.

Persons: “, ”, Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, —, Donald J, Trump — Organizations: Arizona, Republican, Democrat Locations: Arizona

☆ Bucking Trump, Anti-Abortion Movement Shows Deep Roots in Arizona
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-20 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Jack Healy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Speaker Ben Toma walked off the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives, resolute — if stressed — after he cast the pivotal vote to again block an effort to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban. He knew he was going against the wishes of top Republicans like former President Donald J. Trump, who had called on the Legislature to change the ban. He worried about political blowback to Republicans in the coming elections. But Mr. Toma saw himself as upholding moral principles far more foundational than current politics, the past president or even the ban itself. Attempts to undercut it as “a Civil-War-era law” were “sort of ridiculous,” he said in an interview on Wednesday after the vote.

Persons: Ben Toma, Donald J, Trump, Mr, Toma, ”, Rights Locations: Arizona

☆ Republican Women Are Divided on Abortion as Bans Spread
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Lisa Lerer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rebecca Gau, a self-described “reasonable Republican” in Mesa, Ariz., is conflicted about many things that her party promotes. But she knows exactly what she thinks about Arizona’s new — or rather, very old — Civil War-era abortion ban. “Are you nuts?” she said, adding that she was frustrated with the ban and Republican politicians inserting themselves into women’s health choices. Across the country, fractures are emerging among conservative and centrist Republican women, as they confront an unrelenting drumbeat of new abortion bans and court rulings. For years, the party’s message was simple and broad: Republicans oppose abortion.

Persons: Rebecca Gau Organizations: Republican Locations: Mesa, Ariz

☆ On Abortion, Trump Chose Politics Over Principles. Will It Matter?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Lisa Lerer | Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They demanded Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. With Roe v. Wade left on the “ash heap of history,” as anti-abortion leaders are fond of saying, they find themselves no longer calling the shots. And on Monday, their biggest champion, the man whom they call the “most pro-life president in history,” chose politics over their principles — and launched a series of vitriolic attacks on some of their top leaders. With his clearest statement yet on the future of abortion rights since the fall of Roe in 2022, Mr. Trump laid bare how faulty a messenger he had always been for the anti-abortion cause. When he first flirted with a presidential run in 1999, Mr. Trump was clear about his position on abortion: “I’m very pro-choice,” he said.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Roe, Wade, ”, I’m Organizations: Republican, Mr, Conservative Political, Conference

☆ Erin Hawley: The Woman Arguing Against the Abortion Pill
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was 2014, and Erin Morrow Hawley was fighting against the egg-laying hens of Missouri. A law professor from five generations of ranchers and the wife of Senator Josh Hawley, Ms. Hawley joined a challenge to California, which required more spacious enclosures for hens laying eggs to be sold there. Ms. Hawley continued teaching, and Ms. Harris became Joe Biden’s vice president. Ten years later, Ms. Hawley, 44, is now at the center of one of the country’s most heated cultural battles about bodily autonomy, gender roles and abortion. And Ms. Hawley was the woman standing before the justices, arguing to sharply curtail access to the abortion pill.

Persons: Erin Morrow Hawley, Josh Hawley, Hawley, Kamala Harris, Harris, Joe Biden’s, Roe, Wade Locations: Missouri, California

☆ What Christian Traditions Say About I.V.F. Treatments
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God,” the court’s chief justice, Tom Parker, wrote in his decision. Among conservative Christians, the belief that life begins at conception has been a driving force behind anti-abortion policies for years. Among the most ardent abortion opponents, that thinking has also led to uncompromising opposition to in vitro fertilization. “That is the fundamental premise of our entire movement,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, which opposes abortion. I.V.F., she said, “is literally a business model built on disposable children and treating children as commodities.”

Persons: Tom Parker, ”, Kristan Hawkins, “ Organizations: Alabama, Life

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling, that frozen embryos should be considered children, has created a new political nightmare for Republicans nationally, who distanced themselves from a fringe view about reproductive health that threatened to drive away voters in November. Several Republican governors and lawmakers swiftly disavowed the decision, made by a Republican-majority court, expressing support for in vitro fertilization treatments. Others declared they would not support federal restrictions on I.V.F., drawing a distinction between their support for broadly popular fertility treatments and their opposition to abortion. “The concern for years has been that I.V.F. would be taken away from women everywhere,” Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview on Thursday.

Persons: Nancy Mace Organizations: Alabama Supreme, Republican Locations: Alabama, South Carolina, I.V.F

☆ Trump Allies Plan New Sweeping Abortion Restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Lisa Lerer | Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Allies of former President Donald J. Trump and officials who served in his administration are planning ways to restrict abortion rights if he returns to power that would go far beyond proposals for a national ban or the laws enacted in conservative states across the country. Behind the scenes, specific anti-abortion plans being proposed by Mr. Trump’s allies are sweeping and legally sophisticated. Some of their proposals would rely on enforcing the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law from 1873, to criminalize the shipping of any materials used in an abortion — including abortion pills, which account for the majority of abortions in America. “We don’t need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books,” said Jonathan F. Mitchell, the legal force behind a 2021 Texas law that found a way to effectively ban abortion in the state before Roe v. Wade was overturned. “There’s a smorgasbord of options.”Mr. Mitchell, who represented Mr. Trump in arguments before the Supreme Court over whether the former president could appear on the ballot in Colorado, indicated that anti-abortion strategists had purposefully been quiet about their more advanced plans, given the political liability the issue has become for Republicans.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Comstock, ”, Jonathan F, Mitchell, Roe, Wade, Mr Locations: America, Texas, Colorado

☆ Abortion Opponents Set to March in Washington, With Obstacles Ahead
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last year, anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall in triumph for the annual March for Life, eager to enter a new era for their ambitions to end abortion following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that established federal abortion rights. But this year, the first presidential election year in post-Roe America, the movement finds itself marching once more in Washington not in triumph, exactly, but grasping to advance their cause after a series of political defeats, fewer powerful allies, and setbacks in the court of public opinion. “We are experiencing the reverberations of that massive historic shift,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life. “We certainly do have our work cut out for us, but that’s why we started.”The end of Roe has greatly shifted the political calculus. Abortion rights have proven to be a mobilizing force for a new coalition of Democrats, independent voters and even some moderate Republicans.

Persons: Roe, Wade, ”, Jeanne Mancini, “ Organizations: Life, Roe America Locations: Roe, Washington

☆ Southern Baptists’ Fight Over Female Leaders Shows Power of Insurgent Right
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two summers ago, an insurgent group of ultraconservative Southern Baptists branded themselves as pirates, vowing to “take the ship” of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and steer it farther to the right on issues like sexuality and race. They were determined to halt what they saw as rising liberalism and drift from biblical truth. Many were outraged that one of their most prominent churches had ordained three women. Now, the ultraconservatives are seizing power, and the ship is beginning to turn. But it also stems from growing anxieties many evangelicals have about what they see as swiftly changing norms around gender and sexuality in America.

Organizations: Southern Baptists Locations: New Orleans, America

☆ Southern Baptists Vote to Keep Out Churches With Female Pastors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Ruth Graham | Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The ousted churches will continue to function as churches, but lose their association with the denomination and the ability to participate in its programs, including its robust missionary and disaster relief programs. Like many larger Southern Baptist churches, Saddleback does not include the word “Baptist” in its name, and for most of its history it has not emphasized the connection. Three other churches that were expelled in February for having female pastors chose not to appeal the decision. Kristan Pounders, 30, from Big Level Baptist Church in Wiggins, Miss. said she thought the pastors appealing the expulsions had well-presented arguments, but they were not in agreement with what Southern Baptists believe.

Persons: Minnie R, McGee Washington, Timothy’s, Baltimore —, Deborah, Huldah, Priscilla, Philip, ” Organizations: Timothy’s Christian Baptist Church, Starbucks, Big, Baptist Church Locations: Southern, Saddleback, ‚ St, Baltimore, Wiggins, Miss

☆ Southern Baptists Move to Purge Churches With Female Pastors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The crackdown comes at a moment when the country is broadly reexamining women’s rights, a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. As the convention got underway Monday in New Orleans, Mike Law, a Virginia pastor, pushed for his proposed amendment to the S.B.C. The amendment would need to be passed twice, in consecutive years, to go into effect. Some Southern Baptists view female leaders as “as an early harbinger of a raft of other changes,” said Joshua Abbotoy, whose church left the denomination last year because of concerns about a liberal drift. Mr. Abbotoy is the managing director of New Founding, a conservative organization whose journal published an analysis over the weekend estimating that there were more than 1,800 female pastors serving in S.B.C.

Persons: Roe, Wade, ’, Mike Law, ”, Joshua Abbotoy, Abbotoy Organizations: Southern Baptists, Southern Baptist, Church, New Locations: New Orleans, Virginia, Southern, S.B.C

☆ How Pat Robertson Created the Religious Right’s Model for Political Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pat Robertson imagined a nation where conservative Christian values reigned in the halls of power. Conservative Christian believers would no longer be ignored, as he felt they were. Mr. Robertson ran for president in 1988, hoping to channel evangelistic popularity from his growing television empire, the Christian Broadcasting Network, into Republican political might. And yet, by the time of his death on Thursday, the vision he championed had gained more power than he could have ever thought possible. The polarizing rhetoric of his often inflammatory views has become a defining feature of American politics.

Persons: Pat Robertson, Robertson, —, Roe, Wade, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Conservative, Christian Broadcasting Network, Republican, United States Embassy Locations: America, Israel, Jerusalem

☆ When Does Life Begin?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Bethany Mollenkof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

“It is not black and white.”America’s fight over abortion has long circled a question, one that is broad and without consensus:When does life begin? The question of when life begins has been so politicized it can be hard to thoughtfully engage. Ancient Egypt gave the power to create new human life almost entirely to men. The scientific revolution, from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to reproductive science, disrupted centuries of thought on human life. “When does the responsibility for a life begin and end?”

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