On Tuesday night, Arizona state House Speaker Ben Toma found himself on defense, pushing back on criticism that he could have stopped the effort to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban that dates back to 1864. 

“I’d like to see how you stop it in the Senate on Wednesday,” the Republican quipped to GOP state Sen. Anthony Kern, less than 24 hours before the state Senate took up, and ultimately passed, a measure to repeal the Civil War-era ban. The state House approved the bill…