Arizona doctors will no longer be required to tell women that a medication abortion can be reversed after a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday. The ruling ended the legal challenge to an Arizona law that forced doctors to tell patients that it may be possible to “reverse” a medication abortion.
The measure—which has never taken effect because of a legal challenge brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU—would have applied to any woman in Arizona seeking abortion care, even those women who cannot have a medication abortion or have chosen a surgical procedure.
The Center for Reproductive Rights—along with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA), and Squire Patton Boggs filed a challenge to the state law in June 2015. A few weeks later, the state agreed to allow the law to be temporarily blocked. In October 2015, the state requested the federal district court further postpone trial while continuing to block the law. The state said it need additional months to prepare because its “primary expert” lacked the “publication and research background and experience” to be qualified as an expert witness.
The ruling comes three months after Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) signed a measure into law which effectively repealed many of the state’s most recent attempts to restrict access to medication abortion — including this measure. The repeal measure signed by Governor Ducey took effect on August 6, therefore making the requirement forcing doctors to lie to women obsolete.
Today’s ruling also comes less than two months after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt–the most significant abortion-related ruling from the Court in more than two decades..
The law was opposed by medical experts, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Dr. Ilana Addis and Dr. Julie Kwatra, chairwoman and legislative chair of the Arizona Section of ACOG respectively, called the Arizona law “bad medicine” and “tantamount to quackery.”