PHOENIX — The legal right of Arizona women to abortion could turn on the question of whether anyone still has legal standing to argue the procedure should once again be all but outlawed, as it was in territorial days.
In new legal filings, Attorney General Kris Mayes told the Arizona Supreme Court the decision by her office not to defend the old law leaves no one with legal standing to do so.
If the justices agree, that would leave in place a 2022 state law that allows but regulates abortion through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. More to the point, it would remove any danger that doctors who are now performing the procedure in that time frame would end up in prison.
