Abortion, for the most part, is now illegal in Arizona. The only exception, according to the territorial law that was implemented in 1864 and codified in 1901, is for the life of the mother. But that language is vague.
This law was crafted before Arizona was a state and before women had the right to vote. A lot has changed since then, including medicine.
Dr. Laura Mercer is the chair of the Arizona section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The big question now is who gets to define “life of the mother?”
"Ideally, making that decision should be in the hands of the care team in front of her: the doctors, the nurses, the consultants and specialists that are there assessing that patient in front of them," she said.
Because each pregnancy is different. But if she had to boil it down: "How close to dying, does the patient in front of me need to be before I'm willing to risk criminal prosecution to take care of her?"
