By Jacques Billeaud and Anita Snow
Adapted for radio by S. Baxter Clinton
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona will soon join 14 other states that have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy after a state Supreme Court ruling Tuesday found that officials may enforce an 1864 law criminalizing all abortions except when a woman's life is at stake.
The court said enforcement won't begin for at least two weeks. However, it could be up to two months, based on an agreement reached in a related case in Arizona, according to state Attorney General Kris Mayes and Planned Parenthood, the plaintiffs in the current case.
The law provides no exceptions for rape or incest.
Under a near-total ban, the number of abortions in the state is expected to drop from about 1,100 monthly — as estimated by a survey for the Society of Family Planning — to almost zero. The forecast is based on what has happened in other states that ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
Arizona Sen. Eva Burch, who has had an abortion since announcing on the Senate floor last month that she was seeking one because her pregnancy wasn’t viable, criticized GOP lawmakers who back the ban.
Referring to a statewide petition campaign to put the issue on the ballot this fall, she said, “The fight for reproductive rights is not over in Arizona. This moment must not slow us down.”
According to AP VoteCast, 6 out of 10 Arizona voters in the 2022 midterm elections said they would favor guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide.
Planned Parenthood officials vowed to continue providing abortions for the short time they are still legal and said they will reinforce networks that help women travel out of state to places like New Mexico and California to access abortion.
President of the organization's Arizona chapter, Angela Florez said, “Even with today’s ruling, Planned Parenthood Arizona will continue to provide abortion through 15 weeks for a very short period of time,”
Arizona State University student Katarina White welcomed the ruling.
The Tempe resident said, “I was overcome by joy and happy to know that all these babies that could potentially be aborted aren’t going to be aborted. It just made me really proud to be an Arizonan.”
Brittany Crawford, a mother of three who owns a hair salon in Phoenix, said the high court's ruling could have far-reaching consequences.
Crawford said, “You are going to have a lot of desperate girls doing whatever they can to get rid of their babies. Some could end up dead.”
She herself had an abortion at 18, right out of high school, and said she suffered extreme emotional trauma.
She said, “I still think I should have the right to decide whether I do have a child, or whether I don’t have a child.”
The Center for Arizona Policy, a longtime backer of anti-abortion proposals before the Legislature, said the state’s highest court reached the appropriate conclusion.
The group said in a statement, “Today’s outcome acknowledges the sanctity of all human life and spares women the physical and emotional harms of abortion.”
Nearly every state ban on abortions has been challenged with a lawsuit.
