Arizona 15-Week Abortion Ban Declared Unconstitutional, Blocked

Arizona can’t enforce its ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation because it violates the state constitution, a trial judge said Wednesday in a brief order permanently blocking it.

Planned Parenthood Arizona Inc. and two physicians asked the Arizona Superior Court, Maricopa County, in December 2024 to declare the ban unconstitutional. The provision violated an amendment recently approved by the state’s voters that established a fundamental right to end a previability pregnancy, they said.

Judge Frank Moskowitz granted their request.

The ban, which has limited exceptions, took effect in September 2022 after the US Supreme Court declared in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the US Constitution doesn’t protect a right to abortion. The law threatened to impose criminal, civil, and licensing penalties on physicians who performed the procedure, according to the plaintiffs.

Arizona voters decided overwhelmingly in November to incorporate the right to abortion into the state’s governing document—making Arizona one of several states to do so.

The amendment establishes a right to abortion up until fetal viability—usually defined as occurring at about 24 weeks—and allows abortion after that point if a treating health-care professional using “good faith judgment” determines it’s necessary to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health.

Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes (D) had stipulated that the ban is unconstitutional and agreed not to enforce it, even if the court allowed it to stay in effect.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Perkins Coie LLP represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Reuss v. State, Ariz. Super. Ct., No. CV2024-034624, 3/5/25.