After the Arizona Supreme Court allowed for near-total abortion ban, a group of abortion-rights protesters gathered outside the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix on April 9, 2024.
Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ
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Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ
After the Arizona Supreme Court allowed for near-total abortion ban, a group of abortion-rights protesters gathered outside the Arizona state Capitol in Phoenix on April 9, 2024.
Katherine Davis-Young/KJZZ
PHOENIX – Abortions will soon be outlawed in Arizona except in cases where a pregnant person’s life is at risk. The state Supreme Court has ruled Arizona should follow a restrictive abortion law dating back to the 1860s.
Since Dec. 2022, Arizona doctors have been allowed to provide abortions up to 15 weeks into a pregnancy, based on a lower court’s interpretation of state laws. But the state Supreme Court now says Arizona should follow a law banning abortions in almost all cases. It makes no exceptions for rape or incest and makes performing an abortion punishable by two to five years in prison.
The state won’t be able to enforce the decision for 45 days, based on a 2022 Maricopa County Superior Court order. Planned Parenthood Arizona, the state’s largest abortion provider, says it plans to continue providing abortions in the meantime.
An effort is already underway to put a measure on 2024 ballots that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
Abortion across the country
The decision comes a little more than a week after the Florida Supreme Court decided to allow that state’s week’s 6-week ban to take effect May 1, and a day following former President Donald Trump’s announcement that abortion should be left up to the states, angering some of his supporters ahead of 2024 election.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago and handed abortion decisions back to states resulting in a patchwork of laws across the country.
Fourteen states ban abortion with very limited exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a group that supports abortion rights. Another 15 states protect abortion rights in various ways, according to Guttmacher.
This November, there are efforts in about a dozen states, including the one in Arizona, to add a question to voters’ ballots supporting abortion rights.
