This is a free post to all subscribers. To receive posts for paid subscribers only and to help support my reporting and commentary on this and other issues, please consider buying a subscription for $5 a month or $60 a year. The 1864 Arizona law that was reinstated by a judge’s ruling on Friday bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother. Described in most reports as a law passed during the time Arizona was a territory, before it achieved statehood in 1912, one important fact has been omitted both from the judge’s decision and from the press reports on the draconian abortion ban: Arizona was a territory in 1864 all right, but it wasn’t a territory of the United States. The territorial legislature that passed the abortion ban did so on behalf of the Confederate States of America, into which Arizona was accepted when Jefferson Davis signed “An Act to Organize the Territory of Arizona” on January 18, 1862.
These are the same people that went completely insane over having to wear a mask for their own and other’s safety. These are the same people who want nothing to do with funding the care for children born into poverty, the healthcare cost of children, the cost of supporting mothers who cannot financially earn enough to support their babies, etc. These are the same people who want to take our health insurance coverage away from those that desperately need it but can’t always afford it. They want to bring back pre-existing conditions on health insurance plans so that people can be denied health insurance. There’s too long a list of the blatant contradictions to their so called concern for the ‘LIFE’ of the unborn - but no concern at all for the lives of the already living. The rampant hypocrisy of the GOP is so extreme and follows their mental slob orange leader’s model - say anything, do anything, hurt anyone while trying to maintain power over the lives of the majority of us.
Now that Arizona has turned the clock back to the Confederacy, I'm sure that Alabama, Georgia, Texass, Mississippi, Louisiana, etc., will be tripping over each other to emulate their Arizona brothers. Insanity reigns supreme in GQP land.
Heather Cox Richardson devotes her Sept. 24 Letter from an American to this Arizona law, and her interpretation and discussion of the context may be of interest:
"The law that is currently interpreted to outlaw abortion care seemed designed to keep men in the chaos of the Civil War from inflicting damage on others—including pregnant women—rather than to police women’s reproductive care, which women largely handled on their own or through the help of doctors who used drugs and instruments to remove what they called dangerous blockages of women’s natural cycles in the four to five months before fetal movement became obvious."
And in conclusion she summarizes:
"So, in 1864, a legislature of 27 white men created a body of laws that discriminated against Black people and people of color and considered girls as young as 10 able to consent to sex, and they adopted a body of criminal laws written by one single man.
"And in 2022, one of those laws is back in force in Arizona."
I don’t know if you can hear me screaming but I AM!! For over 50 years, 5-0 YEARS, I have been fighting against these moronic evil people re: abortions! It is unconscionable to me that a female judge pull this out of her proverbial hat but I strongly think her ear is tugged on by the far right group, ALEC. The good ole boys network tells her what to do, what to say, just like they do with Loose Cannon. Hard to keep my mouth shut!
These punitive laws are about control. They don't care about the mother or the child, or they would provide postnatal care and financial support until the child becomes an adult.
Attempting to establish a law based on a non-American government which no longer exists opens the barn door to all sorts of possibilities. Why stop with abortion? Let females be controlled by the men in their families, and let their properties revert to the ownership of the men they marry, just as Martha Washington’s inherited wealth became George’s upon marriage. And laws that rightly order the status and behavior of non-white people and slaves would certainly correct the unfair obstacles to wealth and power that white men now face. Make America safe for frightened white men. Establish the world they imagined they would have when they were in high school.
I suspect these absurd legislative attacks on women's rights are cynical and insincere. I think they are intended to just keep the furor in our country on a boil, just like flying noncitizens to Martha's Vineyard. This is all about stirring anarchy so they can throw the government into disarray. And we already know what happens next - January 6 was a trial run.
Great article, but your facts are incorrect. Statehood was granted February 14, 1912. My great-great grandfather William Herring was the territorial AG and refused to fly a flag until statehood passed. He had a 48-star flag custom made for the occasion.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why women are literally dying to immigrate to the US from Latin America where the same draconian laws against women are in place. Why anyone from the global south, male or female thinks the US is a democracy with human rights carved in stone is baffling. They are deluding themselves. We will soon see a serious shortage of OB/GYNs who will make hard decisions about their own careers and wellbeing. Is it worth it?
Most people recoil from extremism. Loud noise on talk radio or crazy antics at the legislature might be fun, but the woman of Arizona knows better. Republicans will rue the day they went off the deep end.
I cannot understand why a law created in 1864 by an entity outside the Union, an enemy of the Union, has any validity after the end of the Civil War. Why do they have to be recognized and enforced at all?
Arizona reinstates Confederate era abortion law
These are the same people that went completely insane over having to wear a mask for their own and other’s safety. These are the same people who want nothing to do with funding the care for children born into poverty, the healthcare cost of children, the cost of supporting mothers who cannot financially earn enough to support their babies, etc. These are the same people who want to take our health insurance coverage away from those that desperately need it but can’t always afford it. They want to bring back pre-existing conditions on health insurance plans so that people can be denied health insurance. There’s too long a list of the blatant contradictions to their so called concern for the ‘LIFE’ of the unborn - but no concern at all for the lives of the already living. The rampant hypocrisy of the GOP is so extreme and follows their mental slob orange leader’s model - say anything, do anything, hurt anyone while trying to maintain power over the lives of the majority of us.
Now that Arizona has turned the clock back to the Confederacy, I'm sure that Alabama, Georgia, Texass, Mississippi, Louisiana, etc., will be tripping over each other to emulate their Arizona brothers. Insanity reigns supreme in GQP land.
So now, let's see:
Women have fewer rights than slaves of 1865.
The GOP is about to find out what a pissed off woman is really capable of.
We're tired of the patriarchy telling us what's good for us.
Women: vote as if your life depends on it-because now it really does.
Vote out every single Republican in office, no matter what office, or where.
We have to smash the patriarchy so that they will never do this again.
Heather Cox Richardson devotes her Sept. 24 Letter from an American to this Arizona law, and her interpretation and discussion of the context may be of interest:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-24-2022
An extract:
"The law that is currently interpreted to outlaw abortion care seemed designed to keep men in the chaos of the Civil War from inflicting damage on others—including pregnant women—rather than to police women’s reproductive care, which women largely handled on their own or through the help of doctors who used drugs and instruments to remove what they called dangerous blockages of women’s natural cycles in the four to five months before fetal movement became obvious."
And in conclusion she summarizes:
"So, in 1864, a legislature of 27 white men created a body of laws that discriminated against Black people and people of color and considered girls as young as 10 able to consent to sex, and they adopted a body of criminal laws written by one single man.
"And in 2022, one of those laws is back in force in Arizona."
I don’t know if you can hear me screaming but I AM!! For over 50 years, 5-0 YEARS, I have been fighting against these moronic evil people re: abortions! It is unconscionable to me that a female judge pull this out of her proverbial hat but I strongly think her ear is tugged on by the far right group, ALEC. The good ole boys network tells her what to do, what to say, just like they do with Loose Cannon. Hard to keep my mouth shut!
These punitive laws are about control. They don't care about the mother or the child, or they would provide postnatal care and financial support until the child becomes an adult.
They will not stop at abortion.
Attempting to establish a law based on a non-American government which no longer exists opens the barn door to all sorts of possibilities. Why stop with abortion? Let females be controlled by the men in their families, and let their properties revert to the ownership of the men they marry, just as Martha Washington’s inherited wealth became George’s upon marriage. And laws that rightly order the status and behavior of non-white people and slaves would certainly correct the unfair obstacles to wealth and power that white men now face. Make America safe for frightened white men. Establish the world they imagined they would have when they were in high school.
I suspect these absurd legislative attacks on women's rights are cynical and insincere. I think they are intended to just keep the furor in our country on a boil, just like flying noncitizens to Martha's Vineyard. This is all about stirring anarchy so they can throw the government into disarray. And we already know what happens next - January 6 was a trial run.
Great article, but your facts are incorrect. Statehood was granted February 14, 1912. My great-great grandfather William Herring was the territorial AG and refused to fly a flag until statehood passed. He had a 48-star flag custom made for the occasion.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why women are literally dying to immigrate to the US from Latin America where the same draconian laws against women are in place. Why anyone from the global south, male or female thinks the US is a democracy with human rights carved in stone is baffling. They are deluding themselves. We will soon see a serious shortage of OB/GYNs who will make hard decisions about their own careers and wellbeing. Is it worth it?
Most people recoil from extremism. Loud noise on talk radio or crazy antics at the legislature might be fun, but the woman of Arizona knows better. Republicans will rue the day they went off the deep end.
If the Democrats can’t win pretty much every election in Arizona this year I swear to Christ.
I have only incoherent rage and disgust at the RepubliQan party today. Along with their MAGAt followers. Fuckknuckles one and all.
What’s the matter with Arizona? Everything.
We really do live in an insane asylum.
I cannot understand why a law created in 1864 by an entity outside the Union, an enemy of the Union, has any validity after the end of the Civil War. Why do they have to be recognized and enforced at all?