Rights groups challenge Arizona abortion ban following reproductive rights constitutional amendment News
Janni Rye, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rights groups challenge Arizona abortion ban following reproductive rights constitutional amendment

Reproductive advocacy groups filed suit Tuesday in Maricopa Superior Court, seeking to overturn the current Arizona law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The groups, including the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union, asserted that the ban violates a constitutional amendment approved by voters last month.

During last month’s election, more than 60 percent of Arizonans voted in favor of Proposition 139, creating a fundamental right to abortion and limiting the state’s ability to interfere with that right before fetal viability. Fetal viability is typically around 24 weeks. However, the new amendment conflicts with a 2022 state law which bans abortions at 15 weeks. As such, the lawsuit maintains that an Arizona court must find that the state law is now unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Notably, the amendment recognizes that the state can restrict abortions prior to fetal viability if the purpose of the law is “for the limited purpose of improving or maintaining the health of an individual seeking abortion care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine.” The law must also not infringe on the individual’s autonomous decision making. Petitioners also argue that the 15-week ban “fails both parts” of the narrow exception provided by the amendment.

The groups also argue the ban clearly violates the amendment’s prohibition on penalizing individuals for assisting in abortion procedures. Under the 2022 law, doctors are subject to civil and criminal penalties for assisting in abortion procedures when the person’s life is not in danger of death or impairment of “major bodily function.” That standard has forced doctors “to choose between turning away patients” and “risking prosecution and several civil and licensing penalties.”

The lawsuit maintains that the Arizona Supreme Court in August has already “recognized” the invalidity of the law by stating that “‘a reasonable person would necessarily understand’ that the 15-Week Ban ‘would be invalid’ under the Amendment.”

Even though the 2022 ban is technically operative, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has promised not to enforce the law while litigation continues.

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