Arizona Judge Lifts Injunction Against State’s 1864 Anti-Abortion Law
Abortion rights protesters chant during a reproductive rights rally near the Tucson Federal Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday, July 4, 2022
.SANDY HUFFAKER / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
PUBLISHED September 24, 2022
Planned Parenthood Arizona on Friday night vowed that its fight to protect reproductive healthcare in the state was “far from over” after a judge lifted a decades-old injunction which had blocked an anti-abortion rights law dating back to 1864 — before Arizona was even established as a state — and allowed the ban to be enforced.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson said in her ruling that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which affirmed the constitutional right to abortion care, had been the basis for barring the 1864 law from being enforced. Since Roe was overturned in June, she said, the injunction should be annulled.
Johnson’s decision will “unleash [a] near-total abortion ban in Arizona,” said Planned Parenthood Arizona, with the law including no exceptions for people whose pregnancies result from rape or incest. Under the law, which was first passed by Arizona’s territorial legislature and then updated and codifed in 1901, anyone who helps a pregnant person obtain abortion care can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
The law does include an exception for “a medical emergency,” according to The New York Times, but as Common Dreams has reported, such an exception in practice has already resulted in a Texas woman being forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy until her health was deemed sufficiently in danger before a doctor provided care.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told the Times that “medical professionals will now be forced to think twice and call their lawyer before providing patients with oftentimes necessary, lifesaving care.”
In a statement on Twitter, Hobbs vowed to “do everything in my power to protect” abortion rights in Arizona, “starting by using my veto pen to block any legislation that compromises the right to choose” if she becomes governor.
“No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom,” Brittany Fonteno, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said in a statement. “I cannot overstate how cruel this decision is.”
The ruling was handed down a day before the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which was signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in March, was set to go into effect. Although abortion care had remained legal in Arizona after Roe was overturned on June 24, it has been largely unavailable as medical providers waited to see whether Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s motion to lift the injunction on the 1864 law would succeed.
Johnson’s ruling made Arizona the 14th state to ban nearly all abortions following the overturning of Roe. Earlier this month, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced his proposal to pass a nationwide forced-pregnancy bill that would ban abortion care at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday called the ruling “catastrophic, dangerous, and unacceptable.”
“Make no mistake: this backwards decision exemplifies the disturbing trend across the country of Republican officials at the local and national level dead-set on stripping women of their rights,” she said.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, which had argued in court that medical professionals in the state should be permitted to continue providing abortions under the 15-week ban, said its “lawyers are evaluating next steps in the case.”
Planned Parenthood Arizona on Friday night vowed that its fight to protect reproductive healthcare in the state was “far from over” after a judge lifted a decades-old injunction which had blocked an anti-abortion rights law dating back to 1864 — before Arizona was even established as a state — and allowed the ban to be enforced.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson said in her ruling that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which affirmed the constitutional right to abortion care, had been the basis for barring the 1864 law from being enforced. Since Roe was overturned in June, she said, the injunction should be annulled.
Johnson’s decision will “unleash [a] near-total abortion ban in Arizona,” said Planned Parenthood Arizona, with the law including no exceptions for people whose pregnancies result from rape or incest. Under the law, which was first passed by Arizona’s territorial legislature and then updated and codifed in 1901, anyone who helps a pregnant person obtain abortion care can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
The law does include an exception for “a medical emergency,” according to The New York Times, but as Common Dreams has reported, such an exception in practice has already resulted in a Texas woman being forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy until her health was deemed sufficiently in danger before a doctor provided care.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told the Times that “medical professionals will now be forced to think twice and call their lawyer before providing patients with oftentimes necessary, lifesaving care.”
In a statement on Twitter, Hobbs vowed to “do everything in my power to protect” abortion rights in Arizona, “starting by using my veto pen to block any legislation that compromises the right to choose” if she becomes governor.
“No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom,” Brittany Fonteno, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said in a statement. “I cannot overstate how cruel this decision is.”
The ruling was handed down a day before the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which was signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in March, was set to go into effect. Although abortion care had remained legal in Arizona after Roe was overturned on June 24, it has been largely unavailable as medical providers waited to see whether Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s motion to lift the injunction on the 1864 law would succeed.
Johnson’s ruling made Arizona the 14th state to ban nearly all abortions following the overturning of Roe. Earlier this month, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced his proposal to pass a nationwide forced-pregnancy bill that would ban abortion care at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Saturday called the ruling “catastrophic, dangerous, and unacceptable.”
“Make no mistake: this backwards decision exemplifies the disturbing trend across the country of Republican officials at the local and national level dead-set on stripping women of their rights,” she said.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, which had argued in court that medical professionals in the state should be permitted to continue providing abortions under the 15-week ban, said its “lawyers are evaluating next steps in the case.”
W.House blasts 'catastrophic' Arizona abortion ban ruling
Sat, September 24, 2022
The White House on Saturday blasted a court ruling in Arizona that imposes a near-complete ban on abortions in the southwestern US state as "catastrophic, dangerous and unacceptable."
On Friday, a judge in Arizona's Pima County had ruled that the stricter ban -- imposed in 1864 and expanded by a 1901 law, years before Arizona became a state -- must be enforced.
"If this decision stands, health care providers would face imprisonment of up to five years for fulfilling their duty of care; survivors of rape and incest would be forced to bear the children of their assaulters; and women with medical conditions would face dire health risks," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The Arizona decision sparked outrage from abortion providers and seemed sure to plunge the thorny issue deeper into the national debate ahead of midterm elections in November.
The ruling "has the practical and deplorable result of sending Arizonans back nearly 150 years," said Brittany Fonteno, president of the Arizona branch of Planned Parenthood, the country's largest provider of reproductive services.
"No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom," she said in a statement.
The ruling from Judge Kellie Johnson came in a case filed in Arizona seeking clarification after the US Supreme Court in June overturned the constitutional right to abortion but left it to the states to set new parameters.
The 1864 ban in Arizona, which permits abortions only when a woman's life is in danger, had been blocked by injunction since 1973, when the US high court first found there was a constitutional right to abortion.
The Pima County ruling came a day before a ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, passed earlier by the Arizona legislature, was to take effect. That law was supported by Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican.
But with Republican-led states across the country imposing even more rigid rules since the Supreme Court decision, some in Arizona wanted to go further.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, asked the court to "harmonize" conflicting state laws, and he welcomed the Pima County ruling.
"We applaud the court for upholding the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue," he said in a statement, the AZCentral.com news website reported.
Planned Parenthood had argued before Johnson that a number of abortion-related laws passed in Arizona since 1973 effectively created a right to abortion, but the judge was unswayed.
AZCentral reported that in the many years the 1864 law was in effect, numerous doctors and amateur abortion providers received jail terms for violating it.
This year's decision by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has been seized on by Democrats, who expect it to anger and mobilize women to vote against Republicans in the fall.
Several special elections held since that ruling have shown significantly higher female participation, and some Republican politicians, once absolutists, have begun to tiptoe around the subject.
In Arizona, a Donald Trump-backed candidate for the US Senate, Blake Masters, once described abortion as "genocide" and called for a federal "personhood" law for fetuses.
But as he slips in the polls, Masters has softened his tone and removed some of the toughest anti-abortion language on his website.
He now voices opposition only to "very late-term and partial birth abortion," two rare procedures.
bbk/sw/md
Sat, September 24, 2022
The White House on Saturday blasted a court ruling in Arizona that imposes a near-complete ban on abortions in the southwestern US state as "catastrophic, dangerous and unacceptable."
On Friday, a judge in Arizona's Pima County had ruled that the stricter ban -- imposed in 1864 and expanded by a 1901 law, years before Arizona became a state -- must be enforced.
"If this decision stands, health care providers would face imprisonment of up to five years for fulfilling their duty of care; survivors of rape and incest would be forced to bear the children of their assaulters; and women with medical conditions would face dire health risks," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The Arizona decision sparked outrage from abortion providers and seemed sure to plunge the thorny issue deeper into the national debate ahead of midterm elections in November.
The ruling "has the practical and deplorable result of sending Arizonans back nearly 150 years," said Brittany Fonteno, president of the Arizona branch of Planned Parenthood, the country's largest provider of reproductive services.
"No archaic law should dictate our reproductive freedom," she said in a statement.
The ruling from Judge Kellie Johnson came in a case filed in Arizona seeking clarification after the US Supreme Court in June overturned the constitutional right to abortion but left it to the states to set new parameters.
The 1864 ban in Arizona, which permits abortions only when a woman's life is in danger, had been blocked by injunction since 1973, when the US high court first found there was a constitutional right to abortion.
The Pima County ruling came a day before a ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, passed earlier by the Arizona legislature, was to take effect. That law was supported by Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican.
But with Republican-led states across the country imposing even more rigid rules since the Supreme Court decision, some in Arizona wanted to go further.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, asked the court to "harmonize" conflicting state laws, and he welcomed the Pima County ruling.
"We applaud the court for upholding the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue," he said in a statement, the AZCentral.com news website reported.
Planned Parenthood had argued before Johnson that a number of abortion-related laws passed in Arizona since 1973 effectively created a right to abortion, but the judge was unswayed.
AZCentral reported that in the many years the 1864 law was in effect, numerous doctors and amateur abortion providers received jail terms for violating it.
This year's decision by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has been seized on by Democrats, who expect it to anger and mobilize women to vote against Republicans in the fall.
Several special elections held since that ruling have shown significantly higher female participation, and some Republican politicians, once absolutists, have begun to tiptoe around the subject.
In Arizona, a Donald Trump-backed candidate for the US Senate, Blake Masters, once described abortion as "genocide" and called for a federal "personhood" law for fetuses.
But as he slips in the polls, Masters has softened his tone and removed some of the toughest anti-abortion language on his website.
He now voices opposition only to "very late-term and partial birth abortion," two rare procedures.
bbk/sw/md
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