Lawsuit against Ariz. anti-abortion law allowing pharmacists to deny women birth control dropped

After two years in court battling controversial anti-abortion-rights legislation in Arizona, Planned Parenthood of Arizona declared Monday it would not appeal an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling, which last month upheld most of the provisions they challenged.

Beginning Tuesday, Arizona women seeking abortions — or birth control — will face the following further restrictions:

• Health care professionals are now allowed to, because of their personal beliefs, deny women access to birth control at the pharmacy and emergency contraception in the emergency room.
• Women are required to attend an “in-person” appointment with a physician to listen to a state-mandated script of information 24 hours before their abortion appointment.
• Only medical doctors — not nurse practitioners — can perform surgical abortions. (Planned Parenthood is challenging a 2011 bill that bans nurse practitioners from dispensing abortion pills.)
• The parent or guardian signatures on consent forms, already required for abortion-seekers under 18 years old, will now have to be notarized.

“Planned Parenthood continues to believe that private health care decisions – including pregnancy-related decisions – are protected from irrational and invasive political barriers under Article 2, Section 8 of the Arizona Constitution, which states that, ‘no person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law,’” read part of a statement released by Planned Parenthood of Arizona to explain why they were dropping the lawsuit.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona told the Associated Press it has had to scale back abortion services in response to the new restrictions but will now begin collecting data on the law’s effects on women, especially low-income and rural residents, in the Grand Canyon State.

“Given that we know these regulations will impede access to women’s health care across the state, we hope that politicians will prioritize women’s health and reverse these restrictions,” said Bryan Howard, CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, in the statement.

With news of Planned Parenthood’s admitted defeat, the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), which backed the disputed legislation in 2009, declared victory.

CAP called Planned Parenthood’s decision “another victory for those who care for women and preborn children. Lives will be spared now that these common sense health and safety standards will be going into effect.”