Arkansas attorney general files amicus brief in Arizona abortion case

Arkansas is leading a 17-state coalition asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate that state’s near total abortion ban.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the attorneys general of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia in a case involving Planned Parenthood of Arizona.

“One year after the Supreme Court of the United States decided that States may regulate or ban abortion, Planned Parenthood is still asking courts to thwart the law and block democratically enacted abortion laws and regulations,” Griffin said in a statement.

“Arizona has a 150-year-old law that bans elective abortions. It also has a law preventing abortions before 15 weeks. Though both laws prohibit abortions, Planned Parenthood somehow convinced a state court that the 15-week ban authorized physicians to perform certain abortions,” he said.

Last December, Arizona’s appeals court upheld a 2022 law that prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy over a near-total ban from 1864, the Arizona Mirror reported earlier this month. In March, anti-abortion law firm Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn the appellate court’s opinion and outlaw all abortions except in life-saving emergencies.

The full text Griffin’s amicus brief follows: