Arizona abortion providers hope 1864 ban will bring about change: ‘A blue wave is coming’

TThe waiting room at the Acacia Women’s Center in Phoenix, Arizona, was calm and quiet on Friday. Patients sat with their mothers, friends or partners and paid no attention to Tyler Perry’s slapstick movie on the TV and an arrangement of Vogue magazines spread out on a table.

It was three days ago that the state’s highest court reinstated an 1864 law that would ban nearly all abortions and impose up to five years in prison on abortion providers.

The revival of the 160-year-old statute has created deep uncertainty about the fate of clinics like Acacia, one of the few medical centers still offering abortions in the state.

Some women waiting for the procedure that day said they were deeply concerned about the Supreme Court’s decision. Others didn’t want to talk about it.

Dr. Ronald Yunis, the obstetrician and gynecologist who owns the women’s center, was nervous yet hopeful. Yes, the 1864 law endangers access to abortion in his state. But he, like some other providers, believes this will ultimately lead to abortion being enshrined in the state constitution. And when that happens, abortion rights in Arizona will be stronger than ever.

For now, Yunis is committed to performing abortions, which take up about half his practice — at least until June, when the law takes effect. In the meantime, abortions can be performed up to 15 weeks under a restrictive 2022 state law passed by conservative Republican lawmakers.

Yunis himself was a conservative and once supported Republicans in the state House.

Now he calls them “idiots” who refuse to “shut their mouths about abortion.”

He is confident Republican lawmakers will change course and vote to repeal the law, despite blocking an effort by Democrats to overturn it last week. It’s “their only political play,” Yunis said, given the backlash from Arizona voters and weakened Republican candidates who faced tight races in November.

It would only take a few Republicans to join forces with Democrats to repeal the old statute. reports the Arizona Republicand lawmakers could start the process of repealing the law as soon as Wednesday.

Even if the law is struck from the books, Arizona abortion providers face significant uncertainty. There is nothing to prevent the implementation of more anti-abortion measures in the future. And in a statehouse where an election-denying Republican lawmaker recently spoke in tongues with his anti-abortion “prayer team” in the Senate chamber, anything is possible.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has assured providers that they will not be prosecuted for performing abortions while she is in office. But providers nonetheless fear that a subsequent attorney general could prosecute them for practicing abortion under Mayes’s watch if far-right leaders in the Legislature either enforce the 1864 law or criminalize abortion with further legislation. Many crimes in Arizona have a seven-year statute of limitations.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders are debating the issue. Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake was once a supporter of the 1864 law. As she trails her Democratic rival in the race, Rep. Ruben Gallego, in a U.S. Senate race, she claims the law “out of step” with the Arizonans. It may be an acknowledgment made too late. Only when questioned in 2022 28% of voters authorized in Arizona by the act of 1864.

Amid the uncertainty, providers say they are pinning their hopes on what has become an increasingly effective way to undo bills passed by Republican lawmakers — trusting voters to pass the abortion rights in state constitutions through voting measures.

In the wake of the decision to reintroduce the 1864 law, a plebiscite emerged voting measure Giving Arizona voters the chance to add abortion rights to the state constitution in November is gaining momentum — even as Republicans strategize the defeat of the measure.

“This whole episode is so emblematic of how broken our political system is,” said Dr. Paul Isaacson of Family Planning Associates Medical Group in Phoenix.

Isaacson, 65, a longtime abortion provider, says his medical group will continue to offer services “until we can’t anymore.”

Amid the uncertainty, Isaacson worries he may have to close for several months before the election brings more clarity to his future. If he closes, he will still have to pay rent and bills for rented equipment in his office. Worse, there could be painful layoffs among a small staff he calls a “second family.”

“It’s a very, very big problem,” he says.

Last week was nerve-wracking, abortion providers say, but now they’re taking a step back from the chaos and trying to figure out the best way to move forward in the short term.

Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick, a doctor who owns Camelback Family Practice, a clinic that performs a third of the state’s abortions, says she was holding foster kittens on her lap when she learned of the court’s decision to revive the 1864 law to blow. Her first reaction, she says, was “sadness and shock.”

After putting her emotions aside, Goodrick began exploring ways her practice could stay open. She swears the clinic won’t close its doors. In a worst-case scenario, she expects it to remain open to help women go to other states for abortions and to meet legal reproductive and health care needs for women in Arizona.

She is looking for grants and financing options that could help any staffers who may be laid off, which would be the most difficult part of a partial shutdown. Her 15 employees, she says, “are fighters and I love them all.”

Layoffs won’t be necessary if Arizona voters enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution in November. And Goodrick has high hopes for the measure’s passage.

“I feel the blue wave coming,” she says. “It’s very reassuring.”

That optimism is echoed by Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood in Phoenix, Arizona. The nonprofit recently resumed providing abortions in Flagstaff, a city in northern Arizona’s “abortion care desert.”

It’s been two years since Planned Parenthood provided abortions in Flagstaff, and given the firestorm created by the 1864 law, resuming services could be risky. But Gibson is pinning her hopes on voters who will provide constitutional protections for abortion in November.

“I am absolutely confident it will pass,” she says, noting that “when abortion is put to the vote, it wins.”

Yunis, the abortion provider who owns the Acacia Women’s Center, loves a good fight. He has been fighting for women’s rights for years, he says, and he has no intention of stopping.

Several years ago, he allegedly pointed a gun at an anti-abortion protester “with a history of violence” who blocked his car. Yunis claims self-defense. Still, the incident led to a misdemeanor conviction, investigation by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners and a dismissal from Medicare. But it didn’t dampen his spirit.

Now, even amid the chaos caused by the machinations of Arizona’s abortion ban, he senses victory.

“We’re going to see abortion as a constitutional amendment in Arizona,” he says. “There is no doubt now.”