Tough abortion laws will cost Arizona Republicans more lives. Do they really want that?

Opinion: Arizona Republicans will set back the fight against abortion if they refuse to accept political reality and double down on stringent laws instead.

Phil Boas
Arizona Republic
Gov. Doug Ducey has argued that a less-stringent 15-week abortion ban should be the law in Arizona, not a territorial-era law that carries mandatory prison time for those who provide abortions.

Arizona Republicans are locked in a debate over how to regulate abortion.

Gov. Doug Ducey argues for a 15-week ban he signed earlier this year.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich successfully argued that a territorial-era law banning virtually all abortions should be law.

Today Arizona has two laws that contradict one another. Eventually, the courts or the Legislature will sort it out.

In the meantime, Brnovich and the Arizona Democratic Party are calling for a special session of the GOP-dominated Legislature to settle the matter.

Which abortion law would save the most lives?

The basic Republican argument on abortion is that a fetus is a life worthy of protection, that government should protect the weakest among us.

Thus, the Republican guide-star should be: Which law protects the most unborn children? Which law saves the most lives?

Ducey’s call for moderation, his practical understanding that a law must reflect the will of the people, would save more lives than a law whose roots revert back to the days when the Arizona territory was part of the Confederacy.

'Lost bodily autonomy':Abortion providers enraged by ruling

That territorial-era law Brnovich promotes would punish anyone who performs or provides means for an abortion by up to five years in prison. It makes no exceptions for rape or incest, merely for life of the mother.

That is such a break with the larger Arizona electorate that it will eventually be rejected, and at a high cost to Republicans.

A hard line on abortion only helps Democrats

A new Suffolk University/Arizona Republic shows that abortion will guide the voting of Arizona women this year. Some 72% of Democratic women ranked the issue as highest priority in their voting. Forty-nine percent of independent women and 37% of Republican women said the same.

That Suffolk/Republic poll, along with Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s announcement this week that she will not prosecute women who have abortions, should be setting off alarm bells in the GOP.

This issue has resonance. For Democrats.

GOP leaders need to think smarter or lose 

When a Pima County Judge upheld the territorial-era law, Democrats were emboldened as Republican candidates largely went silent.

The Supreme Court decision vacating Roe v. Wade is a missile strike on Republican candidates because more than just Democrats support safe and legal abortion. Independents and many moderate Republican women believe in reproductive rights.

The most conservative Republicans may think they’re standing on principle advancing the toughest abortion laws, but in the end their inability to think strategically will cost more lives than it saves.

Time to think smarter. 

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.