The pro-abortion crowd was up in arms this week after the Arizona Supreme Court issued a ruling on the state's 160-year-old abortion law. 

According to NBC News, the state's high court ruled that the near-total ban on abortion law on the state's books since 1864 is still enforceable.

Included in the language of the bill are penalties for those who perform abortions or help women obtain an abortion. Those penalties can result in prison sentences from two to five years.

The only exception included in the bill, which was codified several times at the turn of the 20th century, is if an abortion procedure will save a woman's life.

What's happening?

As a result of the ruling, Arizona joins a growing number of states that have strict or near-total bans on abortions. Many of those laws were "triggered" into effect in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

NBC News noted:

The decision — which could shutter abortion clinics in the state — effectively undoes a lower court’s ruling that stated that a more recent 15-week ban from March 2022 superseded the 1864 law.

While the ruling was a stunning victory for pro-life Arizonans, the state's high court noted that it would put the ruling on a 14-day hold in order to let lower courts sort out "additional constitutional challenges" that haven't yet been cleared up.

Not surprisingly, the state's Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that she would not enforce the law in the wake of the state's Supreme Court ruling.

"Let me be completely clear, as long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state," Mayes said in a statement. She doubled down, saying the Supreme Court's decision is "unconscionable" and "an affront to freedom."

The ruling sparked major backlash across social media and statements from a long list of Democratic politicians, including President Joe Biden.

White House responds

President Biden demonized Republicans in his response to the state's ruling, accusing the GOP of "ripping away womens' freedom," adding that he believes the ruling is "cruel."

"Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest," Biden's statement read, in part.

As if it will make any difference at all, Vice President Kamala Harris said that she will travel to Arizona in the wake of the ruling to keep the "fight" for "reproductive freedoms."

It was noted that Arizona voters will likely have the ultimate say if the measure makes it to a ballot.