In the wake of the enactment of Proposition 139, Arizona’s atorney general says she will not defend the legality of abortion restrictions on the books that are being challenged.
Kris Mayes says her office has reviewed three laws being challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights and others. Some of the restrictions include a 24-hour waiting period and a prohibition on prescribing abortion inducing drugs over telemedicine.
Mayes says she believes those rules run afoul of the new law approved by voters last year.
"We have determined that the three laws that the plaintiffs are challenging here are unconstitutional and cannot withstand tests that the voters stood up when they amended the constitution to protect abortion rights," Mayes said.
Arizona’s Speaker House Steve Montenegro said he will seek to defend the old laws.
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Republican gubernatorial hopeful Andy Biggs has chosen a former state senator who sought to define in state law who is male and who is female as his running mate. -
Planned Parenthood Arizona clinics are once again providing care for patients insured through Medicaid. Services for Medicaid patients had been on pause since September. -
Arizona voters added abortion protections to the state’s constitution two years ago, but reproductive rights advocates say their fight is far from over. -
Prescribing abortion medications via telehealth was previously banned by a state law. But a court ruling in February voided that, and several other abortion regulations in Arizona. -
The case involves state laws that ban certain advanced practice clinicians like specially trained nurse practitioners from providing abortion services — something they’ve historically done.
