This week, Arizona’s Democrat attorney general issued new guidance on the state’s 15-week abortion law to affirm that women experiencing a miscarriage or other health emergency will have access to treatment with the law in place. This guidance is a sharp contrast to recent pro-abortion claims made by members of the Biden administration who say that women experiencing these issues will not be treated if pro-life laws exist.
Arizona AG Kris Mayes published the 19-page opinion on Thursday. The guidance explains that doctors will still be allowed to treat women for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and other emergencies under the state’s 15-week abortion ban. These procedures, Mayes noted, are not elective abortions banned under the state’s law.
"As the top legal officer in this state, let me be perfectly clear: Arizona law does not allow for the prosecution of a treating physician who exercises their clinical judgment in good faith to provide an abortion under the medical emergency exception. Full stop," Mayes said in a statement.
To comply with the medical emergency exception in the state’s abortion law, a physician must “exercise clinical judgment” and determine in good faith that, based on clinical judgment, either “a condition…so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death,” or “a delay [in providing an abortion] will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
Let me be absolutely clear, no doctor or medical professional should have to worry about facing prosecution when treating patients. You can read my full opinion on the meaning of "medical emergency" and Arizona's 15 week abortion ban here: https://t.co/QAnT4SNLeb pic.twitter.com/bx8ErNIt6m
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) June 27, 2024
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, members of the Biden administration, specifically, Vice President Kamala Harris, have claimed that women have not been able to access care during a miscarriage due to pro-life laws passed in certain states.
“There are countless stories that — there are a couple of stories of — that I heard most recently of women in Florida who were going through a miscarriage, went to get medical help, and were denied because the medical professionals were concerned that they would face a liability or even criminal punishment for helping these women,” the vice president said in remarks at the University of Nevada in April 2023.
A few months later, Harris said in an ABC News interview that “restrictions on reproductive health services have led to serious medical emergencies for millions of American women.”
Last week, in a post-debate interview with CNN, Harris said, “Women across our country have been denied emergency health care” because of pro-life laws.
In addition, the Biden administration has featured Kate Cox, a Texas woman who made national headlines when she sought a court order in her home state to abort her unborn daughter when she was diagnosed with trisomy 18, in several events in recent months, including Biden’s State of the Union.
In a legal filing, Cox claimed that her unborn daughter would die shortly after birth if she carried the pregnancy to term. Cox eventually traveled out of Texas to end her unborn daughter’s life. In the months that followed, Democrats have celebrated Cox’s decision to kill her unborn daughter over a disability. Throughout all this, Cox claimed she sought the abortion for her own health.
“Attorney General Mayes is bucking the political rhetoric of others in the Democrat party by issuing guidance to protect women from abortion misinformation. Every pro-life law in the country including Arizona’s allows pregnant women to receive emergency care. Joe Biden and the abortion lobby have been putting women in danger by causing confusion on this fact to justify an agenda for all-trimester abortion that Americans do not support,” Adam Schwend, the western regional director at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said. “More Democrats should be willing to step forward like Attorney General Mayes and put the truth and safety of women ahead of an extreme abortion agenda.”