Pam Raphael went to the Arizona State Capitol Tuesday afternoon bringing frozen treats and hot temper. She had come to deliver an order of frozen prickly pears and limes, but was preoccupied with a just-released decision from the Arizona Supreme Court that upheld an 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions.
“I’m disgusted,” Ms. Raphael, 50, said as she walked toward a gathering of Democrats arguing against the decision. He added that it is “nobody’s business” if a woman decides to have an abortion.
The decision to overturn abortion care in a crucial battleground state inspired passionate reactions from Arizonans across the political divide, ranging from excitement to disgust.
Some conservative voters and the staunchest critics of the abortion state hailed it as a victory for women. Many Democrats, moderate independents and some Republicans said the Arizona Supreme Court had gone too far. But it was not clear Tuesday that the decision would tip the balance in November’s presidential election.
Critics said the court, by reviving a 160-year-old law banning all abortions except to save the mother’s life, forced a 19th-century ethic on a fast-growing state trying to sell itself as a renewable energy, battery-making hub. and live and touch tolerance.
“Leave it to the female,” said Maverick Williams, 25, a retail manager walking his dog in the conservative Anthem neighborhood on Phoenix’s north end. “It’s her body, so she has to decide.”
Although the court’s decision is on hold for now, Democrats in Phoenix wasted no time Tuesday in accusing former President Donald J. Trump to jumpstart abortion in Arizona and other states by appointing Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. They predicted a backlash against Republicans during the election year, citing recent ballot measures in conservative states like Kansas and Ohio that enshrined abortion protections into law.
But voters like Mr. Williams suggested it might not be that simple in this closely divided desert battleground. Although he opposed the state court’s ruling on abortion, he said he is more concerned about the rising cost of living and called President Biden too old and unfit to serve another term. He said he would vote for Mr. Trump.
Arizona has traditionally voted Republican, but the state flipped for President Biden in 2020 by about 10,000 votes. Two years later, Democrats won campaigns for governor and attorney general with campaigns emphasizing their support for abortion rights.
Outside a nearby grocery store, Nicki Auchter and her husband, Scott, expressed reservations about both the abortion decision and Democrats. As they filled water jugs for a football game, they said they were personally opposed to abortion but did not agree with the 1864 ban because it had no exceptions for rape or incest.
“I’m pretty pro-life, but I think it should be the woman’s choice,” said Mr. Auchter, 42, who is an operations manager for a construction company. “It’s her body.”
However, Ms Auchter said their top priority this election year was not abortion. It was “to get Biden out of office.” They said they were most concerned about the national debt, the rising price of their insurance and the record number of asylum seekers crossing the US-Mexico border.
Several Republican politicians were quick to distance themselves from the decision on Tuesday and said they supported repealing the 1864 law in favor of the existing 15-week abortion ban. But Kathy Herod, president of the Arizona Center for Political Action and one of Arizona’s most prominent anti-abortion activists, praised the decision and said it would protect “the humanity of the unborn child.”
“There is a long way to go to create a culture of life,” he said. “Today was the right legal decision.”
But in interviews across Phoenix on Tuesday, many women said they were stunned.
Crystal Padilla, 30, a hotel cook in Phoenix, said she still finds it hard to believe that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned federal protections against abortion in Roe v. Wade two years earlier. She said it was hypocritical for conservative states and judges to impose new abortion restrictions while failing to help low-income mothers struggling to earn enough to live.
“Which man on the Supreme Court pushes a baby?” asked. “They can’t relate, and yet they try to police other people.”
Ms. Padilla said she could relate because she had an abortion at 19. She said it was a tough decision, but she couldn’t have supported a baby shortly after graduating high school.
“It still seems impossible,” said Ms. Padilla, who plans to vote for Mr. Biden. “I fear for the people coming of age who have to face this decision and are not given that choice. It’s just unconscious.”
McCall Lemmons, 31, a special education teacher for an online charter school, said she was disappointed with Mr. Biden and wished he had been able to forgive more student loan debt and devote more to education policy. But she said the abortion would force her to vote for him.
