Arizona’s attorney general has agreed not to enforce a near total ban on abortions at least until next year, a move that Planned Parenthood Arizona credited with allowing the group to restart abortion care across the state.
"While we are celebrating today, we can’t ignore that we are still on a long an uncertain path to restoring the fundamental right to abortion in Arizona, and making this essential healthcare truly accessible and equitable for all people," Brittany Fonteno, who heads Planned Parenthood Arizona, said at a news conference. "While abortion is currently legal in Arizona and we have resumed abortion care throughout the state, we know that this could very well be temporary.
After the judge in Tucson agreed with Brnovich, the court of appeals temporarily overrode her and set a schedule for Planned Parenthood and the Arizona attorney general’s office lawyers to file their legal briefs in the appeal. Those documents are due by a Nov. 17 deadline.The abortion ban, which became law over a century ago and put on hold following Roe v. Wade, was allowed to come back into force once again following a Supreme Court decision that overturns Roe v. Wade.
The lawsuit filed by a Phoenix abortion doctor and the Arizona Medical Association repeated many of the arguments made by Planned Parenthood in their failed effort last month to persuade the Tucson judge to keep in place a 50-year-old injunction barring enforcement of the old law. The judge said it was not procedurally proper for her to try to reconcile 50 years of later law with the old law.