Doctors Challenge “Misleading” Arizona Abortion Law

Doctors and health care providers are suing to stop a new Arizona abortion law from taking effect. The law would require all abortion providers to tell patients seeking the procedure that medical abortions can be reversed, information that the lawsuit calls "false, misleading, and/or irrelevant." The new law forces doctors to act “against their medical judgment and in violation of medical ethics, to convey to their patients a state-mandated message that is not medically or scientifically supported and that is antithetical to the purpose of informed consent. The act violates plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights," the suit, which was filed Thursday, stated. The doctors filed the suit with help from lawyers from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The requirement, which is scheduled to go into effect on July 3, is one of many new abortion restrictions that have been passed in 2015, including a similar law that passed in Arkansas. It is also only one of many lies that doctors around the country are mandated to tell women seeking abortion care. Despite the fact that there is no evidence that an abortion done using medication can be reversed, doctors must still tell all their patients that it can be at least 24 hours before the procedure, whether or not the patient is using that method. It is now up to a judge to decide whether to issue an injunction, which would stop the law from taking effect while legal challenges make their way through the courts. One Arizona doctor who opposes the law told us in April, even if so-called abortion reversals were a real thing, "The truth is that the demand for this would be very rare, because the majority of women seeking terminations have been counseled appropriately and most people who aren’t sure they want one don’t get them."