Despite strong, bipartisan backlash, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs doubled down Monday on a pro-abortion executive order that strips local prosecutors of their authority to investigate abortion cases.
County prosecutors wrote to the governor Monday, saying the order sets a “dangerous precedent” and Hobbs should rescind it. The letter was a bipartisan effort, and all but three of the 15 county prosecutors signed it, according to the Washington Examiner.
However, Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater rejected the prosecutors’ request a few hours later.
“We will not rescind this order,” Slater said in a statement on Twitter. “Governor Hobbs will continue to use her lawful executive authority to put sanity over chaos and protect everyday Arizonans from extremists who are threatening to prosecute women and doctors over reproductive healthcare.”
On June 22, Hobbs signed an executive order that revokes local prosecutors’ ability to prosecute abortion violations and puts the power solely in the hands of pro-abortion Attorney General Kris Mayes.
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A pro-abortion Democrat, Hobbs argued that the Attorney General’s Office should be the only authority to make decisions about enforcing abortion restrictions. That way “differences in interpretation or application of the law by different county attorneys do not chill, deter or restrict access to lawful abortion care,” Hobbs said.
Right now, Arizona law prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks. The state also has a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban that would protect all unborn babies, but it currently is blocked. The state Supreme Court is considering the case.
But if the attorney general is the only person tasked with enforcing the law and she refuses, abortionists could continue to kill unborn babies in abortions without fear.
In their letter Monday, county prosecutors said Hobbs’ order “sets a dangerous precedent and suggests that any Arizona governor can order the attorney general to assume all duties related to an entire category of criminal prosecution and, by consequence, prohibit local prosecutors from acting.”
Since Arizona became a state, they said elected local prosecutors have been the ones tasked with conducting criminal prosecutions. They accused Hobbs of an unprecedented power-grab and asked that she rescind the order by July 7.
“The governor’s office should not interfere with the discretion of prosecutors in fulfilling their duties as elected officials,” they wrote. “Whether this was the intended purpose, the result is an unnecessary and unjustified impingement on the duties and obligations of elected county attorneys in Arizona.”
Last week, state Senate leaders also accused Hobbs of “reckless abuse of power” and demanded that she revoke the order. In a letter to the governor, leaders of the Senate nominations committee said they will not approve any more of her nominees until she agrees to discuss their “tremendous concerns” with her actions.
“The conspiring of your office and the Attorney General to circumvent the laws of this state and this country, two executive offices charged with enforcing statute as it stands, give the Legislature tremendous concern about your office’s future attempts to act outside its vested authorities,” the committee leaders told Hobbs.
Arizona pro-life leaders expressed alarm about Hobbs’ actions, too.
“In her zeal for abortion, Gov. Hobbs has exceeded her authority as governor,” Cathi Herrod, Esq., president of the Center for Arizona Policy, responded in June. “The law does not allow her to strip county attorneys of their clear enforcement authority as granted in various Arizona laws.”
Herrod urged the governor to work with people on both sides of the abortion debate to serve pregnant women in need so they don’t feel like aborting their unborn babies is their only option.
Hobbs’ executive order attempts to expand abortion in a number of ways. Along with taking away local prosecutors’ authority, she also created a new Governor’s Advisory Council on Protecting Reproductive Freedom to make recommendations on how to expand access to “sexual and reproductive health care,” including elective abortions. The order also limits state agencies’ ability to help other states with their investigations of abortion violations.
Arizona has an 1864 state law that prohibits killing of unborn babies in abortions except if the mother’s life is at risk. If enforced, the law has the potential to save as many as 36 babies from abortion every day.
Last summer, the abortion ban went into effect temporarily after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but the Planned Parenthood abortion chain sued and Arizona courts blocked the legislation in October.
Now, state lawmakers, pro-life advocates, doctors and others are urging the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse the ruling and allow the state to protect unborn babies again.
