The Quickie: Arizona Abortion Ban Goes Before The State Supreme Court

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: Arizona Supreme Court hears oral arguments on abortion ban, Kentucky’s abortion ban denied Jane Doe care, and new report finds 49 million more women could have access to no-cost contraception.

ARIZONA ABORTION BAN GOES BEFORE THE STATE SUPREME COURT: Today, the Arizona Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could revive a nineteenth-century, near-total abortion ban. Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes will decide the status of Arizona’s abortion laws and could fundamentally reshape access to care in the state. 

The case was brought by an anti-abortion physician, Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, after the Arizona Court of Appeals harmonized the state’s conflicting abortion laws and ruled that abortion could remain legal through 15 weeks of pregnancy. He’s asking the court to disregard dozens of laws permitting physicians to provide abortion and impose a ban from 1864. That’s right: a doctor who had nothing to do with the previous court case is exploiting the courts in a last-ditch effort to ban abortion and deny thousands of Arizonans essential care. And he’s backed by Alliance Defending Freedom, the same group behind efforts to ban medication abortion and overturn Roe. 

While advocates remain hopeful that the Arizona Supreme Court will reject this argument, they recognize that the courts aren’t the only avenue to protecting abortion access. A campaign to establish stronger constitutional protection for abortion rights is well on its way to making the 2024 ballot. 

Read more from ABC News and Fronteras Desk.

 

REMINDER: KENTUCKY’S ABORTION BAN DENIED JANE DOE CARE: Yesterday, attorneys for Jane Doe — the lead plaintiff in a class action challenging Kentucky’s abortion ban — informed a state court that after filing her lawsuit, Jane learned that her embryo no longer had cardiac activity. Although Jane had decided to have an abortion, the government denied her the freedom to control her body. Countless Kentuckians face the same harm every day as a result of the abortion ban. 

“Kentuckians like Jane should be able to focus solely on their health and should not have to worry about bringing a lawsuit,” said ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project deputy director Brigitte Amiri, who represents Jane Doe. “But the Kentucky Supreme Court previously held that health care providers could not raise the constitutional rights of their patients. Unfortunately, patient-led challenges like Jane’s are our only path forward to strike down the bans under the right to privacy and right to self-determination.”

“We encourage others in Kentucky who are currently pregnant and seeking abortion to reach out to us if they are interested in joining the case,” Amiri added. “Call or text us at (617) 297-7012.” 

Read more about Kentucky class action at the ACLU. 

 

49M MORE WOMEN COULD ACCESS NO-COST CONTRACEPTION IF HHS, LABOR, AND TREASURY DEPTS. UPDATE GUIDANCE: Last Friday, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats, led by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), released a staff analysis. This new report found that 49 million more women could have access to no-cost contraception, as intended under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), if HHS, Labor, and the Treasury (the Departments) revise existing guidance — a change for which Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among other coalition partners, has been advocating. This analysis  comes as a follow-up to the Committee’s October 2022 report which found widespread insurance and Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) noncompliance with the ACA's contraceptive coverage requirement and recommended that the Departments issue new guidance to ensure that more contraceptive products are covered seamlessly and at no-cost by insurance plans. 

Currently under the ACA, most private health plans and Medicaid expansion are required to cover FDA-approved contraceptive methods with no cost-sharing. Despite this, insurers and PBMs often impose cost-sharing requirements or coverage exclusions, especially for newer products, and deny exception requests. 

New guidance strengthening the ACA’s contraceptive coverage requirement would help to achieve the goals laid out in President Biden’s June executive order on Strengthening Access to Affordable, High-Quality Contraception and Family Planning Services, which called on the Departments to improve contraceptive access and affordability for people with private health insurance. 

Read more on the staff analysis from The Hill here.