PHOENIX — Planned Parenthood Arizona has joined several other providers that have restarted abortion care in the state —, although it may only be temporary — after clinics ceased providing the service when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that women do not have a constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
The organization has for years done the most abortions in the state, but it ended the practice after the high court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling on June 24.
Planned Parenthood and other providers shut down because of the legal uncertainty over a pre-statehood law that bans almost all abortions and a “personhood” law that they feared could be used to prosecute doctors and nurses providing that care.
A federal judge blocked the personhood law on July 11 after abortion rights groups sued, saying it was unconstitutionally vague. That prompted some providers to restart services, including two clinics in Phoenix and one in Tucson. Some provide the abortion pill, and others have both the pill and surgical abortions.
Separately, a state judge in Tucson in considering the attorney general’s request to lift an injunction barring enforcement of the pre-statehood law. Attorney General Mark Brnovich had announced that law was enforceable after the Supreme Court decision, but then he acknowledged the injunction remained in place.
Planned Parenthood Arizona this week began providing both medication and surgical abortions at its Tucson clinic, one of four in the state where it provided abortions. Those four and three others run by the group never halted other care, such as pap smears, contraception and other reproductive services. Planned Parenthood plans to begin offering vasectomies in the fall.
Brittany Fonteno, Planned Parenthood Arizona’s president and CEO, said the decision to open just the one clinic for abortions came down to the staff being willing to take a risk and go back to providing services that some Republicans contend are illegal.
“We have providers who, even with this bit of legal clarity that we’ve been able to get over the past couple of weeks, they’re still not comfortable,” Fonteno said Friday. “So we chose Tucson because that’s where we had providers that felt comfortable in resuming abortion care.”
Other Planned Parenthood clinics could restart abortion care in the coming weeks, she said.
A judge in Tucson heard arguments on Aug. 19 on Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s request to lift the 1973 injunction blocking…
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