Women’s Health Advocates, Providers Appeal Federal Court Decision Threatening Arizona Women’s Access to Non-Surgical Abortion
Unconstitutional law restricting medication abortion, which took effect April 1, now heads to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
(PRESS RELEASE) Immediately following yesterday’s federal court decision failing to protect Arizona women’s constitutional right to non-surgical abortion, reproductive health advocates and providers today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse yesterday’s decision, which would halt the dangerous and unconstitutional law pending the outcome of the litigation.
Said David Brown, staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights:
“Arizona women should not be denied their constitutional rights or their ability to get critical health care from the medical professionals they trust while this unconstitutional law continues to make its way through the courts.
“We are confident that the Ninth Circuit will do what the lower court’s ruling failed to do: protect women’s rights and health by preserving the same safe and legal access to non-surgical abortion that Arizona women have had for over a decade.”
The regulations—which went into effect today and were issued by the Department of Health Services on January 27, under the authority of a law signed by Governor Jan Brewer in April 2012—unconstitutionally restrict medication abortion in such a way that doctors will only be able to offer medication abortion with an inferior, outdated, and less effective protocol, the result of which will deny most Arizona women access to an alternative to surgical abortion that has been widely recognized as safe and effective by medical experts and organizations worldwide for over a decade.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, filed the lawsuit in Arizona federal district court in March 2014 on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Arizona and the Tucson Women’s Center.