Health care providers sue Arizona over 15-week abortion ban

(CN) — Planned Parenthood and other health care providers sued the state of Arizona on Tuesday, saying that its 2022 law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy conflicts with a new constitutional amendment passed by voters in November that establishes “a fundamental right to abortion."

"For decades Arizona lawmakers chipped away at the rights of people who can become pregnant and tied the hands of their healthcare providers," said Lauren Beall, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Arizona, in a written statement. "Voters made it clear that they’ve had enough. Today, we are asking the court to end Arizona’s dangerous 15-week ban and to affirm the will of the people."

A pair of OB-GYNs joined Planned Parenthood Arizona in the class action challenging the ban's restrictions on the constitutional right for abortion access recently established with the passage of Proposition 139. Under the amendment, abortion access up to the point of fetal viability, around 23 or 24 weeks, is enshrined in the Arizona Constitution.

"The amendment permits only those regulations of pre-viability abortion that both respect patient autonomous decision making and make the abortion safer for the person seeking an abortion, using the least restrictive means," the plaintiffs write in their civil complaint, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.

In early 2022, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Arizona state legislature passed SB 1164, which criminalized abortion 15 weeks after the patient's last menstrual period, making an exception for medical emergencies in which the patient is facing either death or a "serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

"Since the ban took effect in 2022, it has had devastating consequences across the state — forcing many Arizonans to carry pregnancies to term and give birth against their will. In so doing, the ban inflicts serious, irreparable harm to the physical, psychological, and dignitary well-being of pregnant Arizonans, as well as that of their families," plaintiffs say.

The 15-week mark is well short of when a fetus typically becomes viable, which occurs some time after the 21st week. The ban made physicians who perform an abortion after 15 weeks subject to felony charges, as well as civil penalties, including fines and loss of license.

"The ban also flouts the amendment’s prohibition on penalizing any individual or entity for assisting an individual in exercising their constitutional right to abortion by imposing severe criminal, civil, and licensure penalties on those who provide pre-viability abortion after 15 weeks LMP," the plaintiffs write.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has already signed a stipulation with the plaintiffs, agreeing that the abortion ban in unconstitutional and that the state won't enforce it until the litigation is resolved.

Earlier in 2024, Arizona attempted to re-enact a Civil War-era law that would create a near total abortion ban that Mayes had publicly refused to enforce, and that Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs had quickly repealed.

Hobbs, a Democrat, said in a written statement on Tuesday:

“Arizonans made it clear that they support reproductive freedom, and there is no question that a ban with no exceptions for rape or incest should be removed from our laws. As Governor, I’ve fought hard to protect women from the out-of-touch politicians attempting to strip away our freedoms, including overturning the archaic 1864 abortion ban, and I’m glad Arizonans are working to finish the job and enforce the constitutional protections we now enjoy.”

Cathi Herrod, the president of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the lawsuit revealed "the true pro-abortion agenda that denies the reality of an unborn child's life."

She added: "No decision has been made on any attempt to intervene in the lawsuit. That will take further analysis and consideration."

Arizona is just one of five states where voters passed ballot measures protecting abortion access this year. Planned Parenthood has already sued Missouri, in the wake of that state's abortion rights referendum.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93% of abortions performed in 2022 were in the first 13 weeks, though that data excludes certain states, like California.

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