Chaos and confusion ensue at abortion clinics after Arizona court rules 1864 ban is enforceable

Abortion providers in Arizona faced chaos and confusion after the state’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that a 160-year-old abortion ban is enforceable, throwing abortion access into question.

Dr. DeShawn Taylor, founder and president of the Phoenix-based Desert Star Institute for Family Planning, said she was initially unsure how quickly the change could go into effect, so she rushed her staff to call seven patients with appointments on Tuesday to ask them to come in earlier in the day.

“We just concentrated on getting patients seen,” Taylor said, adding, “We needed to make sure that we got those abortions done.”

The bombshell ruling says that a law banning all abortions except to save a woman’s life, which was passed in 1864 before Arizona became a state, can be enforced given that a constitutional right to abortion is no longer guaranteed in the U.S. However, the court put its decision on hold for 14 days so a lower court can consider “additional constitutional challenges” that haven’t been cleared up.

Even after that, Planned Parenthood Arizona said, the ban can’t take effect until 45 days after the state Supreme Court issues its final ruling, because of a 2022 court decision in a separate case.

Health care providers in Arizona said they spent much of the day on Tuesday answering questions from patients and trying to assuage fears that their abortion appointments would be canceled.

At the Planned Parenthood clinic in Tempe, Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said uncertainty about when the ruling would go into effect triggered anxiety among patients.

“That chaos and confusion that we’re seeing is what I’m having to explain to patients,” she said Tuesday. “Patients are coming