Arizona's top court has revived a ban on nearly all abortions under a law from 1864, a half century before statehood and women's suffrage, further restricting reproductive rights in a state where terminating a pregnancy was already barred at 15 weeks of gestation.
"We defer, as we are constitutionally obligated to do, to the legislature's judgment, which is accountable to, and thus reflects, the mutable will of our citizens," Judge Lopez wrote. Planned Parenthood Arizona, which offers abortions at its clinics in the state, said it would continue to provide those services"for a short period of time" under a 2022 state court order barring immediate enforcement of the 1864 law.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat whose re-election bid is widely seen as gaining from a backlash to new abortion restrictions since Roe was overturned, called the Arizona ruling the"result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women's freedom." In Arizona, the issue could ultimately be decided by the voters, after a group of abortion rights advocates last week said it gathered enough signatures to create a November ballot measure that would enshrine in the state's constitution a right to an abortion until foetal viability.