Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Blocks Counties From Prosecuting Abortion-Related Crimes

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) issued an executive order Friday banning the state’s 15 county attorneys from prosecuting abortion-related crimes.

The move centralizes prosecution power with the state’s Attorney General Kris Mayes, who, like Hobbs, campaigned for office last year on protecting abortion rights.

“I will not allow extreme and out-of-touch politicians to get in the way of the fundamental right Arizonans have to make decisions about their own bodies and futures. I will continue to fight to expand access to safe and legal abortion in any way that I can,” Hobbs said in a statement Friday.

The executive order applies to all future and pending county-level prosecutions related to any state law restricting abortion access. In Arizona, abortion is banned at 15 weeks under a measure that Hobbs’ Republican predecessor Doug Ducey signed into law in March 2022.

The executive order does a number of other things, including barring Arizona authorities from extraditing people to other states for alleged abortion law violations that are legal in Arizona and establishing an advisory council on reproductive freedom with members appointed by Hobbs.

Republicans quickly pushed back on Hobbs’ efforts.

“At a minimum, this order shows disrespect and contempt for the judiciary. Arizona’s abortion laws are still in litigation in light of the Supreme Court’s historic Dobbs ruling,” state House Speaker Ben Toma (R) said in a press statement. “The governor cannot unilaterally divert statutory authority to prosecute criminal cases from Arizona’s 15 county attorneys to the attorney general.”

Abortion opponents in Arizona are currently trying to revive an outright abortion ban originally written in 1864 by asking the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that the state’s 15-week ban supersedes the more extreme one from nearly 160 years ago.