1864 was good for some people in Arizona. If you did not have family or friends who were killed or wounded in the Civil War or have some other tragedy, life was good. In 1844 it seems that only white men could vote. So maybe it was good for them but not quite as good for others. The state of medicine was not very good for anybody. There have certainly been a good number of advances since then in medicine, equality of the sexes and races, and many areas.

Why talk about his now? The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated a law dating to 1864. The law reads:

A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years,

Democrats are trying to repeal this law. It is 160 years old and there have been quite a few changes since 1864 but Republicans seem to want to keep the law in place. It is very soon and we’ll have to see how this develops.