Reproductive rights advocates eye legal challenges to abortion restrictions
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Years' worth of litigation may be in store as reproductive rights advocates prepare to challenge various abortion restrictions under the newly passed Proposition 139.
Why it matters: In addition to the ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which lawmakers approved in 2022, Arizona has myriad other regulations and restrictions on how and under what circumstances women can get abortions, who can perform them and how they become accessible to minors.
- Many of those laws are likely to be challenged under Prop. 139.
The big picture: Prop. 139 went into effect last Monday when Arizona's election results were certified, but the abortion rights it guarantees aren't implemented automatically.
- Opponents of the 15-week ban will now have to sue to overturn it before it becomes legally unenforceable.
- Attorney General Kris Mayes told reporters at a press event last Tuesday her office expects that lawsuit to be filed quickly, possibly as soon as today.
What's next: Reproductive rights advocates are already eying other restrictions they hope to overturn under Prop. 139 once the 15-week ban is gone.
- Paul Isaacson, a Valley OB/GYN and abortion provider, told reporters he's spoken with attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Rights about a list of laws they plan to prioritize for legal challenges in a "step-wise fashion."
- That includes a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, a prohibition on getting abortions due to genetic abnormalities in the fetus, and an "informed consent" law requiring doctors to inform women about alternatives to abortion.
- Chris Love, a senior adviser to Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, told Axios she expects to see litigation challenging laws prohibiting the mailing of abortion drugs and barring telehealth for abortion care.
Catch up quick: Voters overwhelmingly approved Prop. 139, which guarantees the right to an abortion through fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks, with exemptions to protect the health or life of the mother.
- The amendment to the Arizona Constitution also prohibits any abortion restriction that "denies, restricts or interferes" with abortion access before fetal viability, unless it's justified by a compelling state interest and "is achieved by the least restrictive means."
- Such laws cannot infringe on someone's "autonomous decision-making."
What they're saying: "We're going to be in court for a little while, right, in order to roll back some of the most egregious laws that we have on the books that prevent abortion access," Love said.
- Mayes expects that litigation under Prop. 139 will "play out over the next couple of years."
The other side: Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, which has successfully lobbied for many of the state's current abortion restrictions, told Capitol Media Services she believes laws requiring licensure for abortion clinics and medical professionals who perform abortions, and for doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, would survive legal challenges under Prop. 139.
- She also said she believes laws requiring consent for minors to receive abortions are legally defensible under Prop. 139 because they "serve the public interest in providing for women's health and safety.''