NBC News reports that the Arizona Supreme Court ruled today (4/9/2024) that an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions in Arizona remains on the books and is enforceable. The 1864 law, codified in 1901 and again in 1913, makes abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or helps a woman obtain one. The law does include an exception to save the woman’s life.
The decision — which could shutter abortion clinics in the state — effectively undoes a lower court’s ruling that stated that a more recent 15-week ban from March 2022 superseded the 1864 law. The Arizona Supreme Court will put today’s decision on hold for 14 days to allow for the matter to be remanded to a lower court for reconsideration. The matter will almost certainly end up on ballots during the general election in November.
Arizona’s Attorney General Kris Mayes (a Democrat) said moments after the ruling that she would not enforce the law, saying: “Let me be completely clear. As long as I am attorney general, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state,” adding that the decision was “unconscionable” and “an affront to freedom.”
The NBC News article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, this shows the continuing saga of how many persons in the United States seem to think that willfully killing one’s unborn baby is somehow a right, or worse, a human right, and that this practice needs to be “enshrined” in states’ constitutions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional.
Arizona’s 1864 law, even if it is eventually tossed out, serves as clear evidence of how citizens felt about abortion in the past and how dramatically our moral standards have changed in our highly secularized world.
What this writer takes, in part, from the foregoing, is that similar to U.S. President Joe Biden’s ongoing nose-thumbing of the U.S. Supreme Court by proceeding with student loan debt relief using taxpayer funds despite the court’s ruling that it would be unconstitutional to do so without approval and funding from the U.S. Congress, Attorney General Mayes — the chief law enforcement officer of the State of Arizona — was quick to publicly state that she would not prosecute under Arizona’s existing 1864 law, despite the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling.
It is astounding to me that any person, much less a woman or an attorney general, would proclaim publicly that preventing the killing of an unborn baby was “unconscionable!”
The bible warns us that some will depart from the faith and moral truth, having a seared conscience:
1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJV)
The Great Apostasy
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…”.
There seems to be a general unwillingness nowadays to accept judicial decisions one does not agree with, even when such is clearly contrary to the U.S. Constitution and its doctrine of the separation of powers. We are on a slippery slope in this country!
Let’s not lose focus on the fact that abortion is evil! It is the murder of an innocent human life, usually for convenience, as the overwhelming majority of elective abortions in the United States are not to save the life of the mother. On what possible basis could abortion ever be considered a “human right,” as some would argue?
I have compassion for those victims of rape or incest, but those cases are not the majority of abortions and I’m pretty sure there are a lot of persons in our world today who were conceived in rape but are thankful, nonetheless, to be alive and contributing to society.
We are all, including unborn babies, made in the image and likeness of a loving God. The Father has a plan for our lives and He does not make mistakes!
Let’s remind ourselves of what the bible has to say about taking innocent life and His children:
Exodus 20:13 (Amplified Bible)
“You shall not commit murder (unjustified, deliberate homicide).”
Psalm 127:3 (NKJV)
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, [t]he fruit of the womb is a reward.”
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank [Y]ou for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in [Y]our book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”.
Praise Jesus forevermore!
