State legislative battles

NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next, state-level abortion laws.

About a week and a half ago, Arizona repealed a comprehensive pro-life law enacted in 1864 that protected all the unborn.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: The state recodified the law twice—including after the Roe versus Wade decision. Nonetheless, abortion proponents attacked it as a “zombie law” and garnered enough support to repeal it.

AUDIO: [Cheering while Hobbs signs the decision.]

EICHER: The repeal, signed by Governor Katie Hobbs, won’t take effect until 90 days after the current legislative session ends, and that means the protective law could stay on the books till this fall.

MAST: Meanwhile in Florida, that state’s Heartbeat Protection Act took effect May 1st … protecting the unborn after 6 weeks gestation. Democrats went on the offensive, campaigning for a proposed amendment to Florida’s constitution. That’ll be on the ballot in November.

EICHER: What do these abortion laws in battleground states mean for the November election?

Joining us now to talk about them is Ingrid Duran of the National Right to Life Committee.

MAST: Ingrid, good morning. Let’s start with Arizona, how were abortion advocates able to pass this repeal so quickly? It was just at the beginning of April that the state supreme court ruled that the 1864 law was enforceable, and now it’s been repealed. What does this mean for the unborn?

INGRID DURAN: Yeah that is an excellent question, and similar to the post-Dobbs response from our opposition. It is a page out of their playbook, where they are saying, like, “Oh, if this law goes into effect, women will die, women will not be able to get care.” And some, you know, unfortunately, pro-life Republicans fell under that pressure and changed their vote. And what it means now, after that goes into effect, Arizona currently has a law that will protect the unborn child at 15 weeks. And so that will be the law in Arizona. And, I think, it'll just be up to the pro-life movement in Arizona to continue to educate on the humanity of the unborn child, and some of the support programs that we have for their mothers, and just start to increase the visibility and the humanity of the unborn. So that, you know, you can have all of the pro-life laws in the world and/or in a state, but if you don't convince the people that this fellow human being is, you know, can feel pain, has a heartbeat, is worthy of protection and deserves it, then it's for nothing. And so, you know, they will still have a good 15 week law there. But the work is never over.

MAST: Let’s turn now to Florida. What is at stake there for lawmakers and voters this summer heading into the 2024 election.

DURAN: Yeah, well, I think for Florida, it'll be very important to understand what the Florida law does what it doesn't do. And so responding to some of the fear mongering that is going on there, we're gonna have to dispel those myths and let them know that the extremism of the ballot measure that would allow abortions for any reason in Florida would also have the effect. And we see this in Michigan, we see this in Ohio. It will also have the effect where the legislature cannot even pass protective laws or regulating abortion at all, when you have this, so called right to abortion, you know, ingrained into the state constitution; and also the existing protections like parental involvement, conscious protections for healthcare workers who choose not to provide elective abortions, these would be at risk. In Ohio they had an informed consent law that gives abortion-minded mothers an opportunity to see the developing unborn child, a waiting period prior to making her decision, this life-and-death decision. And there has already been a challenge to repeal that law that has been standing for so long, that has been proven to change the minds and hearts of some of these abortion-minded women. And so Florida would see the same fate where their parental involvement could be at risk. Health care, conscience protections for health care workers would be at risk, as well as other laws, whether it's born alive, it would make it very hard to introduce or pass any, any law that would be reasonable to protect the unborn child to regulate abortion or also to protect and support women.

MAST: Ingrid, final question. Are you generally encouraged or discouraged by the direction of state level protections for the unborn?

DURAN: Oh, I am an eternal optimist, and so I'm always encouraged. I've been doing this work since 1995. And so I've seen different administrations at the federal level, different governments at the state level, and you kind of see a wave of, you know. Sometimes there are many pro life wins, and then sometimes there are not. And so I stay encouraged, because I know that with the spreading of information of the pro life message that we're able to really impact society and, and just, you know, show them that life is a beautiful choice. And we see that now, even as you see more and more unborn children who are surviving, or being born at earlier stages in pregnancy, were in the 1970s. This would be unheard of, you know, having a 20-22 week baby born and thriving afterwards. So I stay encouraged, you know, and I know that sometimes it does get difficult. And I also welcome the challenges because even in the challenges, there's a lot to learn.

MAST: Ingrid Duran is the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. Ingrid, thank you for your time!

DURAN: Thank you, Lindsay! It was a pleasure.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.