In a landmark decision, the Arizona Supreme Court approved the ban on practically all abortions, significantly changing the state’s legal framework around pregnancy terminations.
The court voted 4-2 in favor of the anti-abortion legislation.
What is the 160-year-old abortion ban upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court?
The 1864 law, which predates Arizona’s statehood, makes no exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or risk to the mother’s life. The court also suggested that doctors could be prosecuted under state law.
The judgment is likely to have an impact on clinics, women, and their health across the state. In a November referendum, Arizona might be able to overturn the judgment.
In Arizona, it was already illegal to terminate a pregnancy at 15 weeks. A lower court recently ruled that doctors could not be charged with terminating a pregnancy for up to 15 weeks.
The Supreme Court opted to consider the case in August 2023, after Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing law firm, filed an appeal against the lower court’s decision.
States in the United States were permitted to adopt abortion prohibitions after the US Supreme Court overturned the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022.
Additional criminal and regulatory penalties apply to abortions performed beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy
The legislation specifies that abortion is punishable by two to five years in prison unless the mother’s life is in danger.
The law prosecutes “a person who provides, supplies, or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs, or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman unless it is necessary to save her life.”
According to the verdict, “In light of this opinion, physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal.”
Additional criminal and regulatory penalties apply to abortions performed beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy.
According to the Associated Press, lawyers for Planned Parenthood Arizona have claimed that criminal sanctions will only be imposed on doctors who perform abortions.
The court stated that the rule will not be enforced for at least the next two weeks, but plaintiffs estimate it might take up to two months, according to the Associated Press.
According to Reuters, Arizona Justice John Lopez stated that the state legislature “has never affirmatively created a right to, or independently authorized, elective abortion.”
Lopez went on to say, “We defer, as we are constitutionally obligated to do, to the legislature’s judgment, which is accountable to, and thus reflects, the mutable will of our citizens.”
We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights- President Biden
President Joe Biden released a statement saying, “Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest. This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote. This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”
He added, “Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose. We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade for women in every state.”