The repeal will not go into effect, however, until 90 days after the state’s legislature adjourns, meaning the near-total abortion ban will briefly take effect.

Arizona's Democratic governor on Thursday signed a bill overturning an 1864 law banning abortion, a month after the state's supreme court said the Civil War-era rule was valid. The western state jumped headlong into the divisive abortion rights debate last month when its supreme court ruled a 19th-century edict was enforceable.