Arizona’s 15-Week Abortion Ban Takes Effect

An Arizona Appeals Court ruled that the state’s 15- week abortion ban can go into effect, following Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R-AZ) asking for the pre-statehood ban to be enforced after Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

The court ruled the ban for 15 weeks was legal and overruled an almost-total ban that was in place when Arizona was a U.S. Territory.

“Under this construction, our contemporary statutes permit physicians to perform elective abortions up to fifteen weeks but only in conformity with a host of exacting regulations. The original law still outlaws abortions in all other circumstances than those allowed by the subsequent legislation. This construction produces a coherent, easily-applicable statutory scheme. It is the only construction that comports with the legislature’s direction that each of the statutes regulating abortion continues to have force and effect,” Judge Garye Vasquez said in the decision.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion clinics suspended the procedure but restarted again in July after a “A court blocked the implementation of the “personhood” law, which gives legal rights unborn children. But, now that the law is in force, the court will not allow abortion providers to continue. 

The law will ban all abortions after the 15-week mark, except when a mother’s life is in danger. 

Attorney General-elect Kris Mayes (D-AZ) said that she doesn’t plan to prosecute abortion providers despite the new 15-week law passing. 

My statement regarding the Arizona Court of Appeals decision on abortion. #reproductiverights pic.twitter.com/EHh5h5FWGf

— Kris Mayes (@krismayes) December 31, 2022

Other states, such as Wyoming, Montana, North Carolina and North Carolina, have their own bans, but they have yet to be enforced by the courts.

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