Cathi Herrod and her Christian Taliban at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), and her willing accomplices in our lawless Tea-Publican legislature, suffered another defeat today when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Arizona law which restricts the use of abortion-inducing medications Court to continue blocking Ariz. abortion law:
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against an Arizona law that restricted the use of abortion-inducing medications.
Read the opinion Here (.pdf).
Nearly half of all abortions performed in Arizona use the medication, as opposed to surgical abortions. The medication is used during the first nine weeks of pregnancy, while surgical abortions are performed later.
The Arizona Legislature in 2012 passed a law requiring abortion providers to follow the federal Food and Drug Administration requirements for the medication. The FDA requirements restrict the medication to women who are seven weeks or less pregnant and requires three separate visits to a physician. Arizona abortion providers had been using an evidence-based regimen that allowed the medication to be taken up to nine weeks of pregnancy and required two visits to a physician.
The law went into effect April 1, but the court [stayed] it two days later until it could consider its opinion.
In an order issued Tuesday, the appeals court determined that the law causes an undue burden on a woman’s right to seek an abortion and issued a preliminary injunction halting the law from being in effect until the underlying case is resolved.
“Plaintiffs have introduced uncontroverted evidence that the Arizona law substantially burdens women’s access to abortion services, and Arizona has introduced no evidence that the law advances in any way its interest in women’s health,” the order states.
It goes on to describe the FDA regimen as “less safe, less effective.”
The opinion said the cost of following the FDA regulations as opposed to the evidence-based regimen is about $200 more per procedure. There are also increased cost to the woman for transportation and possible time off work for a third doctor visit, according to the court opinion.
The American Medical Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had filed court documents in the case opposing the law, saying it impedes physician discretion.
Planned Parenthood Arizona issued a statement celebrating the ruling.
“As a leading health care provider to women in Arizona, we want to protect women’s health and safety, but these restrictions go against more than 13 years of medical research,” said President Bryan Howard. “It’s 2014 — it’s well past time medical decisions be left between a woman and her physician.”
Similar restrictions on medication abortion have been blocked in Oklahoma and North Dakota — but judges have upheld other laws in this area in Ohio and Texas.
This conflict among the circuits is likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the future — which is the legal strategy of the CAP and Alliance Defending Freedom in enacting these unconstitutional abortion restrictions in state legislatures, and then litigating the laws before conservative activist courts. It is a strategy of extremism to push the envelope before ideologically-aligned judges.