Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in a case challenging several abortion regulations in Arizona.
Arizona voters in 2024 enshrined broad abortion rights in the state constitution. Now, a pair of Arizona abortion providers and the Arizona Medical Association are suing the state in Maricopa County Superior Court, saying the new constitutional amendment should be grounds for overturning several Arizona abortion regulations, 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 after an initial appointment.
During a November hearing in the case, 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.”
While the lawsuit is against the state of Arizona, Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, is in agreement with the doctors who filed the case. Instead, two top Republican state lawmakers, House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen, have stepped in as intervenors to defend the abortion laws in court.
They argue that the regulations are meant to keep patients well-informed and safe. In November hearings, their attorneys called Dr. Kristin Collier, a Michigan-based physician who has been public about her anti-abortion views, as a witness. Collier told the judge that doctors might also ask patients to wait a day or more before deciding on other types of medical procedures such as cancer treatment.
“For patients to not regret their decision, to have the time for them to understand that this is their decision, that’s why we ask them to take that time,” Collier said.
This is not the first court case stemming from Arizona’s 2024 constitutional amendment. In a separate case last year, a judge permanently blocked an Arizona ban on abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, saying that the law was unconstitutional under the amendment.
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Arizona voters approved adding constitutional protections for abortion rights in 2024. But that hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from taking up the issue in various forms since that time. -
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.
