Planned Parenthood on Wednesday challenged Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's motion to reenact a near-total, pre-Roe ban on abortions.
The Arizona attorney general, according to Axios, last week requested a court lift an injunction on the state's abortion ban, which had laid dormant since 1973 — the year Roe v. Wade went into effect. Following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe, Brnovich wants to return Arizona to a time when abortion bans were enforceable.
But Planned Parenthood argues that the Arizona attorney general's motion "blatantly" overlooks "dozens of laws" that conflict with a pre-Roe ban.
Planned Parenthood argues in its challenge that the court "has a duty to harmonize all of the Arizona Legislature's enactments as they exist today" and that "irreparable harm will befall Arizonans if this Court's 1973 injunction is modified to allow the state to enforce [the law] in a manner that criminalizes nearly all abortions in the state."
Arizona's law holds that abortion is illegal unless used to save a woman's life. And the provider of an unlawful abortion the provider could face up to five years in prison.
"Attorney General Brnovich is playing politics at the expense of Arizonans' lives, and it's not just despicable and legally unfounded — it's dangerous," said Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona.
"Arizona lawmakers have passed numerous laws over the past 50 years allowing physicians to provide abortions. No archaic, harmful 150-year-old law should dictate our reproductive freedom and how we live our lives today. We won't go back."
Brnovich, a Republican, is running for U.S. Senate in Arizona. He faces four other candidates and two write-in hopefuls in the state's Aug. 2 GOP primary.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.