PHOENIX (AP) — Proponents of abortion rights sued Tuesday to block an old Arizona law that criminalized nearly all abortions, arguing that the state legislature’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Abortion should be prioritized and should be allowed before 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The lawsuit filed by Phoenix Abortion Doctors and the Arizona Medical Association repeats many of the arguments made by Planned Parenthood and its Arizona affiliates last month when they failed to persuade a Tucson judge to uphold an injunction that prohibited enforcement 50 years ago before the founding of the state. the law. The judge said her attempt to reconcile the 50-year-old law with the old law was procedurally inappropriate.
Instead, she agreed with Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich that the injunction should be lifted now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down Roe’s ruling.
September. Pima County Superior Court Judge Kelly Johnson’s decision on the 23rd came a day before the Republican governor signed the new law. Doug Ducey’s bill bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion clinics across the state were closed after the decision to declare an 1864 law outlawing abortion (unless the mother’s life was in danger) was enforceable. This is the second time clinics have shut down services — the first since a Supreme Court ruling, but some have reopened after a federal judge ruled a different “personality” law could not be enforced.
Under the old law, rape or incest were no exception.
The new lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, seeks an order that a slew of new laws enacted since Roy to regulate physician abortion practices should be enforceable, including one that Ducey signed in March. 15-week ban. The pre-territorial laws should only be valid for non-physicians, the lawsuit says.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the law firm Perkins Coie filed the lawsuit naming the state as a defendant.
“Arizona’s attempts to enforce conflicting abortion bans, including one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country, have created utter chaos,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
The result of this confusing set of laws, she said, is that providers and patients are in an untenable situation where they “don’t know what the law is and whether they’re breaking it.”
Brnovich’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clinics in Arizona have been sending patients to California and New Mexico for abortions. On Monday, a clinic in Phoenix announced a new workaround that allows patients to mail abortion pills to a city on the California-Arizona border and then pick them up out of state, saving two days of travel to and from care.
Arizona is one of 14 states that have banned abortion at any stage of pregnancy since Roy was knocked out. According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, approximately 13,000 abortions are performed in Arizona each year. About half take birth control pills, which can be taken within 12 weeks of pregnancy, and most at 15 weeks or less.
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