PHOENIX — The Arizona Legislature approved a repeal of a long-dormant ban on nearly all abortions Wednesday, advancing the bill to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is expected to sign it.

Two Republicans joined with Democrats in the Senate on the 16-14 vote in favor of repealing a Civil War-era ban on abortions that the state’s highest court recently allowed to take effect. The repeal bill narrowly cleared the Arizona House last week.

Hobbs said in a statement that she looks forward to quickly signing the repeal into law.

“The devastating consequences of this archaic ban are why I’ve called for it to be repealed since day one of my administration,” she said.

“Arizona women should not have to live in a state where politicians make decisions that should be between a woman and her doctor,” Hobbs continued. “While this repeal is essential for protecting women’s lives, it is just the beginning of our fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona.”

The action in Arizona came the same day as a ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, went into effect in Florida.

The new Florida ban has an exception for saving a woman’s life, as well as in cases involving rape and incest. But Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist with Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, Florida, said health care workers are still prevented from performing an abortion on a nonviable pregnancy that they know may become deadly — such as when the fetus is missing organs or implanted outside the uterus — until it actually becomes deadly.

“We’re being told that we have to wait until the mother is septic to be able to intervene,” Roberts said.

In Arizona, the revival of the 19th century law had put Republicans on the defensive in a battleground state for the presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump, who has warned that the issue could lead to Republican losses, has avoided endorsing a national abortion ban but said he’s proud to have appointed the three Supreme Court justices who allowed states to outlaw it.

The Biden campaign quickly placed blame for the “extreme” six-week ban on Trump.

“Trump is worried the voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created. He’s right. Trump ripped away the rights and freedom of women in America. This November, voters are going to teach him a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the women of America,” President Joe Biden said in a statement about the new abortion ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris also criticized the six-week ban on abortions during an event Wednesday in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Because of Donald Trump, more than 20 states have abortion bans,” Harris said. “And today, this very day, at the stroke of midnight, another Trump abortion ban went into effect here in Florida. As of this morning, 4 million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night.”

If Arizona’s repeal bill is signed, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s prevailing abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period when nearly all abortions would be outlawed because the repeal won’t take effect for 90 days after the legislative session ends, likely in June or July.

Arizona state Attorney General Kris Mayes called the vote “a win for freedom in our state” but expressed concern that without an emergency clause, Arizonans would still be subject to the near total-abortion ban for some time.

“Rest assured, my office is exploring every option available to prevent this outrageous 160-year-old law from ever taking effect,” she said.

The near-total ban on abortions, which predates Arizona’s statehood, permits abortions only to save the patient’s life — and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which says that anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.

Voting on the bill stretched more than an hour, amid impassioned speeches about the motivations behind individual votes.

“This is about the Civil War-era ban that criminalizes doctors and makes virtually all abortions illegal, the ban that the people of Arizona overwhelmingly don’t want,” said Democratic state Sen. Eva Burch. “We’re here to repeal a bad law. I don’t want us honoring laws about women written during a time when women were forbidden from voting because their voices were considered inferior to men.”

There were numerous disruptions from people in Senate gallery as Republican state Sen. Shawnna Bolick explained her vote in favor of repeal, joining with Democrats.

GOP state Sen. Jake Hoffman denounced Republican colleagues for joining with Democratic colleagues, calling it an affront to his party’s principles.

“It is disgusting that this is the state of the Republican Party today,” Hoffman said.

The law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022 though, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could again be enforced.