With the help of an appeals court decision made Friday, abortion procedures may resume in Arizona – at least for now.
Reproductive rights were dramatically altered on Sept. 23, when Judge Kellie Johnson of Pima county’s superior court released a ruling reinstating a pre-statehood law from 1864. The law outlawed all abortion, with no exception for cases of rape or incest – the only valid exception being the death of the person carrying the fetus.
Before the appeals court decision that banned the enforcement of the law, doctors who performed an abortion outside of these guidelines potentially faced between two and five years in prison, along with a class three felony charge. This means after they serve time, they would no longer be able to vote.
“I think it’s important that women have control over their own lives. Having kids is a big thing to commit to and it’s so hard to afford to have a child, but you do need to be able to plan out when and how you’re going to do it,” said Ashleigh Feiring, a registered nurse at Camelback Family Planning.
Because of the reinstatement of the law, several abortion clinics across the state ceased carrying out abortion procedures in order to avoid criminal charges against their staff, which forced those seeking abortions to travel across state lines instead.
Michele Cunningham, another registered nurse with Camelback Family Planning explained the process of obtaining a medication-based abortion, the alternative route under the abortion ban, which includes receiving a prescription from an out-of-state doctor and then crossing into bordering towns in Mexico or California to pick up the necessary medication from post offices.
Seeking out an abortion can be a last resort for some who may choose to use contraceptives like condoms or the pill initially. However, Cunningham said birth control isn’t always effective.
“With pills, you have six to nine people statistically that still get pregnant on the pill,” Cunningham said. “We’ve seen pretty much everything fail, if you have a uterus, it’s not just as simple as [getting on birth control,]” Cunningham said.
This law would affect not only abortion, but all aspects of women’s reproductive health services in the state, including demand for medication-based methods and contraceptives, and it potentially encourages dangerous alternatives to the medical procedure.
“Taking away abortion creates more teen moms that didn’t have the support I did. It breeds parents that don’t love their children,” said Linden Craig, a teenage mom who supports abortion. “I would rather have abortions than a whole generation of abused kids becasue they weren’t wanted by their parents.”
For many states, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, reproductive rights have been in question.
“I want to be hopeful [for change], but we already feel like we’ve been fighting this for years to just try to make things more normal, and now this [ban] has happened,” Cunningham said.
According to a report from Change Research, 71% of Arizona residents oppose banning abortion, and 90% agree that “each of us should have the freedom to decide how and when we start or grow a family, free from political interference.”
“[The government] has been creating more and more barriers over the years and this is just the next one we have to jump,” Feiring said. “Voting this November is going to be very important, it’s the future of women’s rights.”
Contact the reporter at epdavis1@asu.edu.
