Is Abortion Legal In Arizona? No One Seems To Know

ARIZONA — No one seems to know for sure whether abortion is legal in Arizona.

Abortion clinics across the state stopped performing the procedure on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a federally protected right.

It was unclear on Friday to physicians who perform abortions in Arizona if they could now be prosecuted under an abortion ban passed in 1864, or a restrictive law passed in 1901, both before Arizona became a state. Both of those laws were previously enjoined, but could be enforced in the future.

“It is unclear in the state of Arizona exactly what laws are in effect or will be in effect or will remain enjoined or will become enforceable,” said Dr. Laura Mercer, a Phoenix OB-GYN, during a media call on Friday. “It really is a waiting game as we wait for leaders in the state of Arizona to give us direction on what laws are in effect and how those laws will be interpreted."

Mercer is the chair of the Arizona section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"Our office is engaged in ongoing litigation in federal court where the Ninth Circuit has requested us to formally weigh in on this very issue," Brittni Thomason, spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, said in a statement to Patch. "We anticipate filing a legal brief next week."

Until the attorney general's office is through with a legal analysis of Arizona's abortion laws, Thomason indicated that enforcement of any laws that might be in effect would be up to individual county attorneys.

Gov. Doug Ducey and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office failed to immediately respond to Patch's requests for clarification on the state of the legality of abortion in Arizona.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona had not resumed abortion services as of Monday.

"Because Arizona’s legal landscape is complex, PPAZ will pause abortion services at this time to protect our staff and patients," the Arizona branch of Planned Parenthood said on its website.

At Family Planning Associates Medical Group, an abortion provider in Phoenix, abortions were also still suspended as of Monday.

Arizona Senate Republicans said in a news release on Friday that a state law revised earlier this year would allow pre-Roe abortion laws to be enforced immediately. If this is true, that would mean that most abortions in Arizona are banned, except to save the life of the mother. Doctors who violate the law could face felony charges and spend 2-5 years in jail, if convicted.

A abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy signed into Arizona state law in March is set to take effect this fall, but it's unclear if the pre-Roe laws would supersede it.

Ducey previously told reporters that the 15-week ban would replace Arizona's pre-Roe laws, but the bill itself says otherwise.

This legal confusion not only impacts women who were already scheduled to receive abortions in Arizona this week, but also doctors who are uncertain at what point they're legally allowed to perform an abortion to save a woman's life.

“There are so many gray areas right now and there was literally no guidance given on what we can and should be able to do for our patients,” said Dr. Cadey Harrel, the Arizona lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care and a family physician in Tucson.

It's unknown if doctors will be allowed to make the decision along with their patients to end a pregnancy to save a woman's life or if some sort of criteria will need to be met for an abortion to save the life of the mother to be allowed, Mercer said. She believes this will lead to doctors waiting until the mother is in more critical danger than they would have in the past before making a decision.

"We may be seeing people whose lives are put into danger more than they need to be because we’re really waiting for that like, unequivocal ‘they’re about to die’ before we do anything, and that’s really scary,” Mercer said.