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Republicans in the Arizona state House blocked two attempts Wednesday to repeal the state’s 160-year-old near total ban on abortion, despite pressure on the GOP—including from former President Donald Trump—to change course on the hot-button issue. But later in the day, two Senate Republicans joined with Democrats—enough to create a majority—to move forward on their version of a repeal. A final vote on the bill could be weeks away. If the Senate does ultimately vote to repeal the ban, the measure would go back to the House, where it would still face a difficult path. (Collins, 4/17)

Democrats in the Arizona Senate cleared a path to bring a proposed repeal of the state’s near-total ban on abortions to a vote after the state’s highest court concluded the law can be enforced and the state House blocked efforts to undo the long-dormant statute. Although no vote was taken on the repeal itself, Republican Sens. T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick sided with 14 Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday in changing rules to let a repeal proposal advance after the deadline for hearing bills had passed. Proponents say the Senate could vote on the repeal as early as May 1. (Billeaud, 4/17)

The near-total abortion ban set to take effect in the coming months was crafted before Arizona was a state — and generations of lawmakers have worked to keep it alive ever since. (Boehm, 4/17)

More Americans believe abortion restrictions should be decided by the states rather than the federal government, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek. The results suggest more Americans are coming to share former President Donald Trump's view on the issue. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced last week that he believes abortion limits should be left to the states, declining to endorse a national ban after months of speculation and warning that extreme stances on the issue could lead to Republican losses in November's election. (Rahman, 4/18)

The conservative effort to put an abortion ban on the ballot in Nebraska has been bankrolled entirely to date by Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). Ricketts donated $500,000 in cash on March 26 to the group Protect Women and Children, according to its campaign finance report filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. The group reported no other donations. (Weixel, 4/17)

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago, abortion has become a top campaign issue. Since then, President Biden has vociferously defended the right to choose an abortion and attacked former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, for eroding reproductive rights. It might come as a surprise that Biden once opposed abortion and believed that Roe was wrongly decided. Here is how Biden’s stance on abortion has evolved over the decades. (Wang and Guild, 4/17)