Court overturns Arizona's abortion-medication law

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has declared a law restricting how doctors prescribe medication to induce abortions unconstitutional.

The Arizona Legislature in 2012 passed a law requiring abortion providers to follow the federal Food and Drug Administration requirements for the medication. The FDA requirements restrict the medication to women who are seven or fewer weeks into their pregnancy and requires three visits to a physician. Arizona abortion providers had been using an evidence-based regimen that allowed the medication to be taken up to nine weeks of pregnancy and required two visits to a physician.

The law was in effect for two days in 2014, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit halted it while a federal lawsuit advanced.

About half of all abortions in Arizona are performed using the medication, which is administered during the first nine weeks of pregnancy. Surgical abortions are used later in a pregnancy.

According to the court ruling, Judge J. Richard Gama said the law was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority, allowing the Legislature to tell the FDA how abortion-inducing medications should be prescribed.

A federal court lawsuit challenging this law made similar arguments. The case has been on hold pending the results of the local case.

A federal lawsuit over a different abortion law may be headed to court next week. Hearings have been scheduled for late next week, but plaintiffs have requested a delay.

That case challenges a law passed this year that requires doctors to tell patients that it is possible to reverse a medication abortion.

American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona senior counsel Dan Pochoda said Thursday's ruling could help their case as well.

"It gives us momentum," he said.

The influential conservative advocacy group the Center for Arizona Policy declined to comment. It was behind both abortion laws.