Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has asked the state Supreme Court to keep abortion legal following a lawsuit brought against the state by Planned Parenthood to stop the reactivation of a state law aimed at protecting preborn children from abortion.
Hobbs wrote a 17-page amicus brief in support of Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit. In it, she asked the court to not consider any constitutional questions regarding abortion and to focus instead on agreeing with an appeals court’s decision, which stated that an 1864 state law protecting children from abortion can exist along with current laws that allow abortion.
In a statement, Hobbs said she is following through on her promise to “protect reproductive freedom.”
“I will continue to fight relentlessly against out-of-touch extremists who want to jail doctors and end the right of Arizonans to make decisions about their own bodies and futures,” Hobbs said. “Together, I know we can protect reproductive freedom and stop radicals from reinstating a total abortion ban.”
In August, the state Supreme Court said it would consider a petition for a review in Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes, which related to the state’s abortion law and whether or not prosecutors can enforce the state’s 1864 law protecting preborn children from abortion. Abortion is currently allowed in the state through 15 weeks.
In October of 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals issued an order that allowed the 1864 law to take precedence over the newer 15-week abortion law, which was signed in March 2022. That law took effect prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, causing confusion as to which law (1864 or 2022) would be in effect. The 15-week law did not include any provisions to repeal the 1864 law; since the state did not have a trigger law in place in the event that Roe was overturned, the 1864 law was still on the books when the 15-week law was in question.
