Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed an government order on Friday that successfully stops county legal professional generals within the state from prosecuting abortion instances.
The order strips the ability of Arizona’s 15 county legal professional generals from prosecuting any abortion-related crimes. The order provides Arizona Legal professional Basic Kris Mayes, a Democrat, sole discretion “over prison prosecutions of medical suppliers, different entities, or people for violations of Arizona’s abortion statutes,” Axios reported.
Hobbs’ order additionally took further steps to guard abortion rights in Arizona, together with barring state businesses from aiding with prison abortion investigations, in addition to the blocking of extraditions to different states for abortion violations that would not be unlawful in Arizona. Hobbs additionally established a Council on Defending Reproductive Freedom to “develop entry to sexual and reproductive freedom well being care in Arizona.”
“I can’t permit excessive and out-of-touch politicians to get in the way in which of the basic rights of Arizonans,” Hobbs wrote in a tweet saying the order. She added that the consolidation of prosecuting powers below Mayes will assist to “guarantee variations in software of the regulation by county attorneys don’t prohibit entry to authorized abortions.”
Mayes launched a press release saying that “Arizona has leaders which are dedicated to readability and sanity.” She added that “anti-abortion extremists will cease at nothing of their makes an attempt to impose their radical beliefs on the remainder of the nation. I do not settle for that.”
The order was signed almost a 12 months to the day after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, bringing the problem of abortion rights again to particular person states. It comes as pro-choice activists proceed to marketing campaign for extra protections in Arizona. A state appeals courtroom overturned an abortion ban all through Arizona in December 2022, in a case that additionally protects docs who carry out abortions. The case is pending earlier than the Arizona Supreme Court docket.