Arizona governor says prosecutors can’t enforce abortion law

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Friday stripped local prosecutors of the power to criminally prosecute abortion providers, a move aimed at protecting abortion rights in a narrowly divided political battleground.

An executive order signed by Ms. Hobbs, a Democrat, would strip authority from elected district attorneys, a largely Republican group, and turn it over to the Arizona Attorney General, a Democrat who has vowed not to prosecute abortion providers.

Abortion rights groups hailed the governor’s decision as a “promising and welcome” move in a state with a law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona said the governor’s action would help ease fear and uncertainty among abortion providers in the state. Clinics have closed, reopened, curtailed services and lost staff in the uncertain legal landscape since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade a year ago.

But some Republican prosecutors said they were blindsided by the governor’s action, calling it a power grab that unconstitutionally swept away their power to prosecute crimes. Local prosecutors said they were still reviewing the order, but raised the possibility of filing a lawsuit to block it.

“Is she going to say I can’t prosecute drug or murder cases?” said Kent Volkmer, the elected prosecutor in Pinal County, a fast-growing area just south of Phoenix. “For the governor to take that authority from me and say, ‘We’re going to outsource that to the big city’ – that’s very problematic.”

Phoenix District Attorney Rachel Mitchell called the order an “outrageous” attempt to undermine local prosecutors.

The response highlighted the political divide between Arizona’s new Democratic governor and attorney general and elected Republicans in more conservative areas.

A similar dynamic has played out in Republican-led states where officials have wrested power from Democrats in blue cities, creating bitter rifts over local control in Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin and other states.

Mr Volkmer, a Republican, said abortion cases were a low priority and he generally did not want to come between women and their doctors. But he said most criminal cases belonged to local prosecutors, saying the attorney general’s office was “certainly not equipped” to handle abortion-related cases.

The effects of Mrs. Hobbs’ move are perhaps mostly symbolic. There have been no abortion prosecutions in Arizona since Roe was struck down, legal experts said, and most Arizona counties don’t even have abortion clinics. The state’s abortion providers are clustered around Phoenix and Tucson.

Ms. Hobbs won her campaign for governor last year in part by promising to protect abortion rights and reproductive freedom, but the state’s Republican-controlled legislature has limited what she and other Democrats can do.

Unlike the Democratic governors of Minnesota and California, who passed new laws strengthening abortion rights in their solid blue states, Ms. Hobbs has mostly limited herself to speaking out Republican anti-abortion efforts and signing executive actions like the one on Friday.

A near-total ban on abortion passed in the 19th century is still on the books, despite Ms. Hobbs’ promises to convene a special legislative session to repeal it. Enforcement of that law has been stopped by the courts, but a state law that makes it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy is still in effect. Doctors convicted under the law may have their medical license revoked. Pregnant women are exempt under that law.

Abortion providers say they are also subject to restrictions, including a 24-hour wait and restrictions on prescribing abortion pills.

The order signed Friday by Ms. Hobbs also said Arizona would not help other states seeking help with abortion prosecutions, and would oppose efforts to extradite people on abortion-related charges in other states.

“I will not allow extreme and insensitive politicians to interfere with Arizonans’ fundamental right to make decisions about their own bodies and future,” Ms. Hobbs said in a statement. “I will continue to fight to expand access to safe and legal abortion in any way I can.”