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| Photo Credit: AP. |
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona judge on Friday declined to put her order that allowed enforcement of a pre-statehood law making it a crime to provide an abortion on hold, saying abortion right groups that asked her to block the order are not likely to prevail on appeal.
The ruling
from Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson means the state’s abortion
providers will not be able to restart procedures. Abortions were halted on
Sept. 23 when Johnson ruled that a 1973 injunction must be lifted so that the
Civil War-era law could be enforced.
Republican
Attorney General Mark Brnovich sought the order lifting the injunction.
Attorneys with his office told the judge that, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s
June 24 decision said women do not have a constitutional right to obtain an
abortion, there was no legal reason to block the old law.
Planned
Parenthood and its Arizona affiliate had urged Johnson to keep the injunction
issued shortly after Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. They argued that laws
enacted by the state Legislature in the ensuing 50 years should take
precedence.
Planned
Parenthood’s lawyers on Monday asked Johnson to put her ruling on hold to allow
an appeal.
Before last
Friday’s ruling allowing enforcement of the old law, abortions were legal in
Arizona until the fetus was viable, usually at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. But
on Saturday, a law enacted by the state Legislature last spring banning
abortion at 15 weeks took effect.
Gov. Doug
Ducey has said that law takes precedence, but his lawyers did not seek to argue
that position in court. Brnovich and some Republican lawmakers insist the old
law is in force.
Brittany
Fonteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Arizona, said she was
“outraged” by the ruling.
“It is
impermissible that Arizonans are waking up each morning to their elected
officials making conflicting statements about which laws are in effect or
claiming that they do not know, and yet the court has refused to provide any clarity
or relief,” Fonteno said.
Some clinics
in Arizona have been referring patients to providers in California and New
Mexico since Johnson lifted the injunction on the old law, and they were
prepared to restart abortions. The pre-statehood law carries a sentence of two
to five years in prison for doctors or anyone else who assists in an abortion.
Last year, the Legislature repealed a law allowing charges against women who
seek abortions
Ashleigh
Feiring, a nurse at abortion provider Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix,
said her office will keep looking for ways to serve patients.
“We’re trying to think of everything we can to
get loopholes in the law,” Feiring said Friday, adding that the facility would
be willing to once again provide the procedure.
Feiring said
her office continues to do post-miscarriage care and provide patients with
ultrasounds so they know how many weeks pregnant they may be. That’s important,
because abortion pills can only be used in the first 10-12 weeks of a
pregnancy.
Feiring said
some patients are able to get an abortion pill prescription from a provider in
Sweden and get it filled through the mail by a pharmacy in India, but that
takes about three weeks. Arizona law bans delivery of the abortion pill through
the mail, and U.S. providers generally will not take that risk.
Since Roe
was overturned, Arizona and 13 other states have banned abortions at any stage
of pregnancy. About 13,000 people in Arizona get an abortion each year,
according to Arizona Department of Health Services reports.