The Arizona House votes to repeal 1864 abortion ban

[Bob78164]

The Arizona House narrowly voted today to repeal the deeply unpopular 1864 ban on abortion recently reinstated by the Arizona Supreme Court.

Travis Grantham, the Speaker pro tem of the Arizona House of Representatives (a Republican): "To see how this has been turned against one party and used as a weaponization of the issue is disgusting."

Um, no. Using a deeply unpopular law as a political cudgel against those who try to keep that deeply unpopular law on the books is pretty much exactly how politics is supposed to work in a representative democracy. Which I guess is his real problem with what's happening.

But it's pretty clear that, like far too many Republican office-holders, Grantham really doesn't like the democratic process when he winds up on the losing end. He retaliated for today's vote by removing two of the legislators supporting the repeal (one Republican and one Democrat) from the House Appropriations Committee, and he also removed the Democrat from the House Rules Committee.

The Arizona Senate will probably pass the repeal bill next week when it comes up for a required "third reading," and Governor Hobbs will promptly sign it. --Bob