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Arkansas attorney general files amicus brief in Arizona abortion case

Attorney General candidate Tim Griffin, seen here outside the Arkansas State Capitol on April 17, 2015, has a strong lead in the race according to a new Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll.
Michael Hibblen
/
KUAR News
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, Republican, is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate an abortion ban from 1864. Griffin argues by having a lower court block this law, it stops a democratically enacted law from taking effect.

Arkansas is leading a 17-state coalition asking the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstate that state’s near total abortion ban.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the attorneys general of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia in a case involving Planned Parenthood of Arizona.

“One year after the Supreme Court of the United States decided that States may regulate or ban abortion, Planned Parenthood is still asking courts to thwart the law and block democratically enacted abortion laws and regulations,” Griffin said in a statement.

“Arizona has a 150-year-old law that bans elective abortions. It also has a law preventing abortions before 15 weeks. Though both laws prohibit abortions, Planned Parenthood somehow convinced a state court that the 15-week ban authorized physicians to perform certain abortions,” he said.

Last December, Arizona’s appeals court upheld a 2022 law that prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy over a near-total ban from 1864, the Arizona Mirror reported earlier this month. In March, anti-abortion law firm Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn the appellate court’s opinion and outlaw all abortions except in life-saving emergencies.

The full text Griffin’s amicus brief follows:

https://arkansasag.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023-05-25-Arkansas-Amicus-Arizona-Abortion-Ban.pdf

In his 50-year career, Sonny Albarado has been an investigations editor, a business editor, a city editor, an environmental reporter and a government reporter at newspapers in Arkansas, Tennessee and Louisiana. He retired from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2020 after serving as projects editor for 12 ½ years.