For the last year and a half, women in Arizona could legally access an abortion up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. It wasn’t “optimal,” Scottsdale-based OBGYN Dr. Julie Kwatra told Salon, but at least for a vast majority of people seeking an abortion, they could access it in their state.
But this week, everything changed. On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 1864 law some are condemning as "draconian" — passed long before Arizona even achieved statehood — that will ban nearly all abortions in the state. The decision effectively supersedes the lower court’s ruling on a 15-week ban that happened in 2022. While the state’s highest court put the decision on hold for 14 days, and sent it back to the lower court to consider “additional constitutional challenges,” as it stands the law going into effect is likely imminent.
