Arizona's 1864 abortion law applies to miscarriages, too. That won't stand
My first pregnancy, with identical twins, was not viable.
I learned at 10 weeks that I would eventually miscarry. In fact, my doctor told me, my body was starting the process already.
At that time, in 2014, I was driving an hour each way to work. We all decided it was much safer to end a very wanted pregnancy predictably, at home, so there was no risk of me hemorrhaging at work, or even worse, on the road.
I was prescribed misoprostol to begin the process.
Yet under the new (old) law of the state, this option is no longer available.
Ban includes medication for miscarriage
In two weeks, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled, an 1864 near-total ban will be the law of this state.
And it plainly reads: “A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.”
I doubt few doctors would be willing to risk their license, much less their personal freedom, to balk such a clearly stated rule.
And no, I can’t even imagine how much more difficult that will make conversations in obstetricians’ offices across the state.
I remember how emotionally wrecked I was, how I felt like I had somehow failed my babies.
But I at least had an option to grieve this privately, without having to go into work for days or weeks until my body began the miscarriage on its own.
Now, many women — regardless of how they might feel about abortion — don’t even have that.
Abortion ban's days are numbered
There is no good estimate for how many women miscarry each year.
Some say 1 in 10; others estimate it’s more like 1 in 4 pregnancies may end in a miscarriage.
However many it is, I bet it’s far more than the number of abortions that occur in Arizona each year.
And if nothing else, it makes what happens next a whole lot clearer.
Ignore Kari Lake's concern Over Arizona's abortion ruling
Even if some voters might prefer Arizona’s now-ixnayed 15-week ban to a proposed constitutional amendment preserving abortion rights, almost no one is arguing to keep the draconian 1864 ban.
Some now argue that if Republicans have any sense of self-preservation in mind, they’d either pass or refer a competing measure this fall to strike the 1864 law and reinstate the 15-week abortion ban, this time with exceptions for incest and rape.
Who knows how that will play out, or how deep the political fallout might be.
Either way, the 1864 ban’s days are numbered. The consequences are simply too great to let it stand.
Reach Allhands at [email protected]. On X, formerly Twitter: @joannaallhands.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona's draconian abortion law won't last. It hurts too many women
