PHOENIX — One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, the issue is far from settled in Arizona.
Here are three things to watch:
- A constitutional and political standoff between the governor and prosecutors in 12 of the state's 15 counties.
- A legal appeal that could restore a 159-year-old abortion ban as state law.
- A possible statewide vote that could broaden reproductive rights.
Let's take a closer look at each:
How does standoff end?
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs issued an executive order that strips county prosecutors of the power to bring charges in abortion-related cases.
The governor handed that authority to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who has said she wouldn't prosecute anyone for an abortion-related crime.
Hobbs won't back down.
"I'm really confident in the legal foundation for that order," Hobbs told reporters in Yuma last week.
Neither will Maricopa County Rachel Mitchell, a Republican who runs on in the country's fourth-largest county.
"The law trumps executive orders and and the constitution trumps the law," Mitchell said Monday on Arizona PBS' "Arizona Horizon."
"It cannot be ... one person's decision."
Mitchell has led bipartisan opposition to Hobbs' order. In a letter last week, Hobbs' attorney rejected the demand by Mitchell and 11 other prosecutors that the governor rescind the order.
Mitchell said she would ignore it.
Arizona hasn't seen any abortion-related arrests since the Supreme Court decision.
It would likely take a lawsuit to end the standoff between Hobbs and Mitchell. But it might take an abortion-related prosecution to provoke a suit.
Will high court review abortion law?
A pending appeal before the Arizona Supreme Court could upend the current status quo.
A state appeals court ruled late last year that abortion was legal in Arizona up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, based on a bill passed less than three months before Roe vs. Wade was tossed out.
Little attention has been paid to an appeal of the lower court decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.
The conservative, seven-member court was briefed two months ago on the petition to review the abortion ruling. The next step is for the court to decide whether it will agree to hear the appeal.
"What's at stake is the ability of the State of Arizona to protect women and their unborn children," said Kevin Theriot, an attorney with Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom.
The conservative legal group is asking the state's highest court to restore the virtual outright ban on abortion that dates to territorial days in 1864.
"The Legislature has the ability to protect women and their unborn children. The court shouldn't be stepping on that right," Theriot said.
ADF is representing a court-approved intervenor who represents the interests of unborn children, as well as the Yavapai County attorney, representing law enforcement authorities.
Mayes declined to file an appeal.
Will statewide bote happen in '24?
Brittany Fonteno, president chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Arizona, is well aware of the pending decision by the state's high court.
"Our perspective is there's nothing to see here," Fonteno said last month on "Sunday Square Off." "The court has already decided the law is very clear."
But she added: "We're not out of the woods yet."
Whatever the outcome, Hobbs, Planned Parenthood and other advocates are laying the groundwork for a statewide ballot initiative in November 2024 that would expand protections for reproductive rights.
A Gallup poll released in June found Americans support for legal abortion was at or near record highs.
"We know that the support is out there," Fonteno said.
"We've been researching, we've been polling, we've been really trying to understand what the appetite is, and what's possible in our current political climate."
But Fonteno won't be part of the planning.
She announced on Thursday that she will be leaving Planned Parenthood of Arizona in August to become chief executive officer of the National Abortion Federation.
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