Does 1864 Arizona law banning abortions also set the age of consent at 10, as Stephen King claims?

A controversial Arizona Supreme Court judgment reinstated an 1864 law that would ban nearly all abortions in the state. But one online claim painted the effort as being so arcane as to also make sex with children legal. 

"The 1864 Arizona law forbidding abortions, upheld by the State Supreme Court, also sets the age of consent for females at 10 Years," multiple Instagram posts say. The posts attribute the statement to horror novelist Stephen King, who made the comment in an April 12 X post. 

(Screenshot from Instagram)

We tried contacting King about this claim through his literary agent and an online form on his website but received no response.

The Facebook and Instagram posts quoting him were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in favor of bringing back a Civil War-era law that would ban all abortions except when a pregnant woman's life is in danger. Under the law, abortion providers could face two to five years in prison. Barring other legal or legislative action, the abortion measure could take effect as early as June, according to Axios.

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stated on November 21, 2024 in social media posts

A woman holds a sign that says, “I want my daughter to have the right to abortion that I didn’t have.”

The law is part of Arizona’s Howell Code, nearly 500 pages of laws that governed the Arizona territory before the state’s official 1912 establishment. The Howell Code also includes provisions on dueling, slavery, interracial marriages, the age of consent and abortion. 

Although the Howell Code contains a provision in Chapter, 10, Section 47 that characterizes sex with girls younger than 10 years old as rape, the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling reinstated only its abortion provision from Chapter 10, Section 45, which states: 

"And every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause      to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years: Provided, that no physician shall be affected by the last clause of this section, who in the discharge of his professional duties deems it necessary to produce the miscarriage of any woman in order to save her life."

Jennifer Piatt, the co-director of Arizona State University’s Center for Public Health Law and Policy, told Politifact, "The Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling, while reawakening a Civil War-era abortion ban originally passed in 1864, did not revitalize other centuries old restrictions found in the Howell Code, including provisions setting lower ages of consent." 

Arizona law continues to hold that a person can legally consent to having sex at age 18.

King claimed that, "The 1864 Arizona law forbidding abortions, upheld by the State Supreme Court, also sets the age of consent for females at 10 years." 

Strictly speaking, the code from which the 1864 abortion law was drawn did include a provision that criminalized sex with girls younger than age 10.

However, the statement is misleading in that the Arizona Supreme Court’s action did not involve the age of consent, which remains 18 under Arizona’s statute. We rate this claim Mostly False.