Arizona for Abortion Access, a group asking voters to approve a constitutional right to abortion in the state, has asked Supreme Court Justice Bill Montgomery to recuse himself from a case dealing with language that will describe the ballot measure to voters.
The lawsuit before the court is a fight over language Arizona’s Legislative Council approved as a roughly 1000-word analysis of the abortion measure. The GOP-controlled panel added the phrase “unborn human being” to the description, but a superior court judge ruled the council must change the description because that phrase is charged with “emotional and partisan” meaning.
Republican lawmakers appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, where Montgomery could have a say in the matter.
The justice previously recused himself from a different abortion-related case last year, when the Supreme Court considered whether abortion could remain legal up to 15 weeks in Arizona or if a near-total ban should take effect.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, a plaintiff in the case, cited Montgomery’s past public statements as evidence of prejudice against their organization.
In a 2017 Facebook post, Justice Bill Montgomery wrote that Planned Parenthood is responsible for “the greatest generational genocide known to man.” He also participated in a 2015 protest outside the organization’s Arizona headquarters.
At the time, Montgomery initially refused to recuse himself, and argued that he could consider the facts of the case “without regard” for any of his prior positions on Planned Parenthood and abortion.
But Montgomery changed his mind weeks later without explanation.
A spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access — a coalition that includes Planned Parenthood Arizona — said Monday that it’s “obvious to any reasonable person that he is not impartial and cannot do an unbiased review.”
“Hopefully with the history of his previous recusal and the long history of his many problematic statements, about this organization and this case, he’ll do the right thing here again,” Arizona for Abortion Access spokesperson Dawn Penich said.
Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick has already recused himself in the case because his wife, state Sen. Shawnna Bolick (R-Phoenix), is a defendant in the case. She sits on the Legislative Council that added the language at issue in the case.
