Hearings began Wednesday in a case challenging several abortion regulations in Arizona.
Arizona voters in 2024 enshrined broad abortion rights in the state constitution. Plaintiffs say the constitutional amendment should be grounds for overturning several abortion laws that remain on the books in the state, including a ban on prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine, a ban on abortions when fetal abnormalities have been diagnosed, and a mandatory 24-hour wait to get an abortion.
In Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday, Phoenix-based OB-GYN Dr. Paul Isaacson, one of the plaintiffs, testified that Arizona’s 24-hour waiting period is medically unnecessary and burdensome to his patients.
“Many patients are simply frustrated that they have to wait an additional day for something that they are certain they want to proceed with,” Isaacson told Judge Greg Como. “Very often patients will express difficulty in having to make more than one trip to the clinic, to take time off of work, to arrange child care.”
Two top Republican state lawmakers, House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen, are defending the laws as intervenors in the case.
Their attorney argued that the 24-hour waiting period is not necessarily preventing Arizonans from accessing abortion, pointing out that abortions have actually increased in Arizona since the waiting period law took effect in 2009.
Hearings in the case are scheduled to continue through Friday.
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State lawmakers are moving to make criminals out of doctors and pharmacists who send abortion-inducing drugs to Arizona women — as well as those who seek them — but questions remain over whether the bill is constitutional. -
Planned Parenthood Arizona is offering new services and has seen an uptick in patients after a February ruling blocking many abortion restrictions in the state. -
It’s been two years since Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 139 into law, enshrining abortion rights until about 24 weeks gestation in the state Constitution. -
Medical residency applications have dropped significantly in abortion-restricted states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. -
A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the state can’t stop “advanced practice clinicians” — like nurse practitioners — from performing abortions in Arizona.
