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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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.
