Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) is rejecting a call from nearly all county prosecutors to rescind her executive order limiting prosecutions of abortion-related crimes, according to her communications director.
“We will not rescind this order,” communications director Christian Slater tweeted late Monday. “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.”
Twelve out of 15 county prosecutors in Arizona wrote a letter to Hobbs on Monday calling on her to reverse her executive order giving state Attorney General Kris Mayes the power to take up any county prosecution related to the state’s abortion laws. In addition, it bans state agencies from assisting other states in prosecutions related to abortion as well as bans extraditions of people accused of violating other states’ abortion laws.
“I made a promise to Arizonans that I would do everything in my power to protect reproductive freedom, and this Executive Order reflects that promise,” Hobbs said of the order. “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.”
The attorneys argued that the executive order, which was signed June 22, oversteps authority, where, unless provided in statute, local prosecutors have discretion over pursuing cases.
“The governor’s office should not interfere with the discretion of prosecutors in fulfilling their duties as elected officials,” the attorneys 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.”
Maricopa County attorney Rachel Mitchell said that “it is a substantial overreach to suggest the governor may strip away prosecutorial discretion from local, elected officials.”
The letter gives Hobbs until Friday to act.
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Republican state House Speaker Ben Toma also called on Hobbs to rescind the order, calling it “unprecedented, vague, unintelligible and unenforceable.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Hobbs’s office for comment.
