Abortions in Arizona see sharp decline with overturning of Roe v. Wade; expected to remain big issue in 2024 races

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Arizona is reporting a significant drop in abortions, resulting in the lowest numbers the state has seen in more than a decade.

It comes as Arizona’s highest court weighs in on the topic and as an election year kicks off. Although doctors don’t think the report reflects all of the abortions in the state, they do believe it accurately reports some of the fallout from the Supreme Court decision. Abortions up to 15 weeks remain legal in Arizona, but that could soon change if an 1864 law goes into effect, meaning a near-total ban. “We’ve seen a pretty tremendous drop in the number of women seeking abortions,” said Valley OBGYN Greg Marchand.

He believes it’s a direct result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022. “When this immediately happened, there was a lot of confusion on whether the law from the 1800s would apply, whether criminal charges could be filed against doctors who performed abortions,” he said.

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported abortions in Arizona dropped by 81% in the month following the Supreme Court’s ruling. A few months later, leaders cleared up abortion law and ruled they are legal up to 15 weeks. Now, on average about 50% fewer people are getting abortions each month in Arizona. “We’ve seen a significant decrease in a request for terminations. In terminations performed in Arizona, they seemed to have stalled at about 600 to 700 a month. If you look at the data prior, we were looking at about 1,400 a month,” said Dr. Marchand, who also added many women now travel to nearby states if they’re seeing an abortion after 15 weeks.

“Now the Legislature really does have the power to change law around this very important topic,” said political consultant Stan Barnes. He believes the topic of reproductive rights will continue into the 2024 political races. “Abortion politics will be top of mind for political consultants, strategists trying to win the election for their candidate,” Barnes said.

He believes it’s most difficult for Republican candidates who are navigating a Republican primary. “It’s proven difficult in the last cycle, and it’s proven difficult in other states. Abortion is a difficult topic for republicans in general elections. So does that mean democrats are just going to win the day? No, because people are not that unilateral,” he said.

Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, is collecting signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. The measure would guarantee a right to abortion up to 24 weeks. The Arizona Supreme Court is still weighing whether Arizona can continue following the 15-week law or if the state should return to a near-total abortion ban.

Planned Parenthood Arizona released this statement from Dr. Jill Gibson, the organization’s Arizona chief medical cfficer, regarding AZDHS’ report:

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