What do you have in mind?

It was a TERRITORY first, and had laws (as did others, pre-statehood.)

They created a law that allowed the old law to go into effect if Roe V Wade was overturned.

They could have simply rewritten the old law and passed it because the action was essentially the same.

Which makes sense. I suppose a state doesn’t just start from scratch.

But what do I know. Most of my knowledge on the subject comes from the TV show Deadwood

I’m asking about

The mere thought of harkening back to and re-enforcing the 1864 abortion territorial law is the height of absurdity. Kari Lake and her cabal first came against going backwards and now are for it?

Those wingers are nuts with the back and forth on that archaic law. It's going to lose them votes, and her a senate seat.

It isn't as if this was some ancient, forgotten law that was just discovered. There has been a concerted effort spanning more than a century in Arizona to get this law enforced. The recodification in 1977 happened during the Roe era - when the law could not be enforced. Yet the Arizona legislature still pushed to ensure that it would be there just in case Roe was ever overturned.

I asked this and it was answered that it was recodified several times once statehood was in place. Here is the link for my (long-winded) version of your question with the informative answer I got

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218853506

Getting the details :

This law has been in effect in (the state of) Arizona since then.

The "a law from 1864" is being put into effect isn't really the whole story. This draconian abortion ban has been effect since Arizona was a state. Planned Parenthood fought it in 1962, but lost when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that it was Constitutional. They tried again in 1971, but were shot down by an appeals court. In 1973, the Roe vs Wade decision by the Supreme Court prevented the law from being enforced. But the Arizona legislature recodified the law once more in 1977. They did this just in case Roe was ever overturned, to ensure that this ban would go into place again.

So it isn't as if this law was written once before Arizona was a state and then forgotten about. It has been written, and re-written multiple times by the Arizona legislature. There has been an effort, spanning over a century to get this enforced in Arizona.

Rec

I despise the way this law is portrayed. It is put out there like it just happens to be something that was written over 150 years ago and no one has done anything about it.

The reality is that plenty of people have pushed hard to make sure this law is in place and waiting for the right time. (Or perhaps wrong time would be a better way of putting it). In either case this is not the thoughts of people 150 years ago. It is the thought of many people from that time till now.

English common law predates the UK.

The Organic Law includes pre-Constitution texts, and we only got our present government when the Articles of Confederation were tossed under the cart and we adopted the Constitution of the United States.