Judge: Arizona abortion laws are unconstitutional after 2024 amendment

[RandySF]

A Maricopa County Superior Court has permanently blocked multiple anti-abortion laws, ruling that they violate the constitutional right to the procedure voters adopted two years ago.

In 2024, an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters agreed to add abortion to the state constitution, throwing dozens of existing restrictions into question. In May of last year, two local abortion providers and the Arizona Medical Association challenged a series of those restrictions and asked a judge to permanently enjoin them.

Attorneys for the doctors argued that the laws — barring women from terminating a pregnancy because of a fetus’ genetic abnormality; prohibiting the use of telemedicine during medication abortions; and requiring an ultrasound, the recitation of state-mandated information and a 24-hour delay before performing an abortion — are unconstitutional because they conflict with the state’s new protections.

Arizona’s abortion rights amendment explicitly forbids the state from enforcing any policy that interferes with access to the procedure before fetal viability. The only exception is when a “compelling state interest” exists to justify such a policy. But that interest is narrowly defined as one that either improves or maintains a woman’s health, doesn’t infringe on her “autonomous decision-making” ability, is based on evidence-based medicine and is achieved through in the least restrictive manner possible.




https://azmirror.com/2026/02/06/judge-arizona-abortion-laws-are-unconstitutional-after-2024-amendment/