In Arizona and Missouri, new lawsuits could strike down abortion rules voters said they wanted added to their state constitutions.
In the Grand Canyon State, a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, on Tuesday is seeking to wipe the law that bans abortions after 15 weeks in the state, with exceptions, with the new amendment in the state constitution approved.
WHAT MAGA AND THE GOP WILL LOOK LIKE IN A POST-TRUMP ERA
“By outright prohibiting virtually all abortions after 15 weeks [last menstrual period], the Ban plainly denies, restricts, and interferes with the right to pre-viability abortion, forcing continued pregnancy and childbirth upon many Arizonans,” the lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court said.
Proposition 139, which added a “fundamental right to abortion” through viability into the state constitution that also shields abortions to protect the health and life of the mother after viability, passed by a 61.6%-38.4% margin last month. The measure was adopted into the state’s constitution on Nov. 25.
“With their vote on Proposition 139, Arizonans said definitively that the only people qualified to make pregnancy decisions are patients and their health care providers, not politicians. It’s time for the state’s abortion law to reflect that belief and the values enshrined by the Arizona Abortion Access Act,” Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement Tuesday.
HOW ELON MUSK HELPED WILL TRUMP BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE
“Today, we ask the court to end Arizona’s abortion ban so that patients can get vital health care in their communities. In the coming months, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and our partners will continue to fight for Arizonans’ access to abortion, without government interference,” Johnson added.
In another state that approved a ballot measure enshrining abortion into its state constitution, Planned Parenthood is also seeking to have the current abortion law struck down in state court. On Wednesday, a Jackson County, Missouri, circuit court judge will hear arguments in a case to strike down the state’s law that bars abortions except in instances of a medical emergency.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey acknowledged in an opinion to incoming Gov. Mike Kehoe (R-MO) that the amendment strikes down much of the state’s existing abortion law, but still allows it to be restricted by the state after fetal viability.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Abortion ballot measures have largely been successful since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned lawmaking on the matter to the states. Last month’s election found abortion advocates suffered their first set of defeats, despite multiple victories in states such as Arizona and Missouri.
Voters in Florida and South Dakota rejected measures to enshrine abortion into their respective state’s constitutions, while in Nebraska, a ban of abortion after 12 weeks, with exceptions, defeated a measure that would have enshrined abortion through fetal viability.