The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that an 1864 abortion ban is enforceable, throwing another state bordering New Mexico into the situation of a near-total abortion ban. 

Previous Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey enacted a 15-week abortion ban in Arizona in March 2022 but a legal battle then ensued around whether the 1864 law almost completely banning abortion preempts the 15-week ban. On Tuesday, that court case came to a head when the Arizona Supreme Court issued its decision, saying that the 1864 law, created when Arizona first became a territory, is enforceable. If the law goes into effect, it will ban abortion from conception and provide as the only exception if the life of the pregnant person is endangered. The antiquated law would put a provider in Arizona at risk of a felony with up to two-to-five years of jail time, if it is enforced.

This decision caused outrage for many in Arizona. Victoria Lopez, director of program and strategy for American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told NM Political Report that the decision is “devastating.”

“This is a very basic form of healthcare. Arizonans have faced threats and restrictions for decades [around abortion] but this is particularly devastating for us,” she said. 

The Arizona high court also said that the ruling would have a 14-day waiting period, during which the plaintiff, Planned Parenthood of Arizona, could seek a lower trial court for a review of the 1864 law’s constitutionality, Lopez said. This could create a window for the plaintiffs to seek an injunction or a stay on the Arizona Supreme Court decision, she said.

In addition, there is a 45-day waiting period before the Arizona Supreme Court decision would go into effect after the 14-day waiting period. There is also a ballot initiative to amend Arizona’s constitution to allow abortion up to viability, which is expected to go before voters in November.

Lopez said the ACLU of Arizona is a part of the coalition seeking to pass the ballot initiative. The coalition has more than 500,000 signatures and needs 383,000 more by July 3 to qualify to get the question on the November ballot. Lopez said the coalition’s goal is to go well beyond that number.

She said she thinks the Arizona Supreme Court decision will galvanize both volunteers to help with the initiative and will galvanize voters to come to the polls. Arizona GOP candidate for Senate Kari Lake has backpedaled on her position on the 1864 law after previously voicing support for it, according to Axios.

There are unintended consequences and ripple effects from state abortion bans, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Regional Director of Government Affairs Jack Teter told NM Political Report.

State bans on abortion cause terrifying medical emergencies for pregnant individuals who want to carry to term but face a health crisis during the pregnancy, Teter said. Providers and hospitals fear providing any kind of medical care in such situations because of the criminalization. 

“What if someone learns they have an ectopic pregnancy and they have to wait while hospital lawyers debate whether they can get care? It’s so inhumane,” he said. 

Abortion clinics and abortion fund providers in New Mexico are watching what is happening in Arizona closely. Teter told NM Political Report that the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains clinic in Albuquerque finished its expansion last year and can now accept three times the number of patients it could before. 

Jaki Lawrence, spokesperson for PPRM, told NM Political Report by email that 57 percent of PPRM patients in New Mexico currently come from out of state, primarily Texas. PPRM, in addition to expanding its Albuquerque clinic, opened a brick-and-mortar clinic in Las Cruces last year and began offering medication abortion at its Farmington clinic, all in an effort to expand services to meet the needs of patients as more people come from other states to seek abortion in New Mexico.

Related: Planned Parenthood clinics in New Mexico expand, offering medication abortion care at all locations

Teter said that since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, PPRM has provided a little over $12 million for patient assistance in the four-state region, which includes Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. By contrast, PPRM provided $1.2 million in patient assistance over the four-state region in the year prior to the Dobbs decision, he said. 

Teter said that there are other ripple effects if the Arizona 1864 ban is enforced. He said the patients traveling to Arizona for an abortion due to bans in other states will have to travel somewhere else, including New Mexico. 

“It’s not sustainable to live in two countries where it’s a felony in some states and constitutionally protected in other states,” he said.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder, president and chief executive officer of Whole Woman’s Health, a clinic that relocated from Texas to Albuquerque in response to Texas abortion bans, told NM Political Report that Whole Woman’s Health is about to double its space. That expansion is part of a renovation the clinic planned from the beginning to expand services, which will include contraceptive care and intrauterine device availability for the local community. 

Hagstrom Miller said the abortion bans in more than 20 states is “changing the landscape for those of us [in the field], our care model is different.”

She said the clinic has abortion funds available to help individuals with the cost of the procedure but also for the wrap-around cost disruption in people’s work. She said the clinic sees patients who must drive all night to reach the clinic then after the procedure, drive back to their home state the same night.

“The drive is more dangerous than the procedure,” she said. 

Hagstrom Miller said emergency situations when pregnant individuals learn they are suffering a fetal anomaly or a miscarriage but can’t get treatment due to the state’s abortion ban, is something the clinic has seen happening a lot in Texas. 

“This law in Arizona, it predates the end of slavery. People need to really understand this is what we’re going back to in so many ways even though our country has moved forward and secured civil rights,” she said.

Hagstrom Miller said almost 70 percent of the individuals seeking abortion at Whole Woman’s Health are already parents and the clinic provides additional support to accommodate traveling families. She said the bans put the health and safety of women and families at risk.

“There is so much trauma happening, not only to people denied an abortion but also to those denied comprehensive reproductive healthcare,” she said.

Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of Faith Roots Reproductive Action (an abortion fund provider formerly known as New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice), told NM Political Report that the abortion fund is prepared to accept more callers who need practical assistance to obtain an abortion in New Mexico.

“We’ll take the lessons we’ve learned from Texas,” she said.

Faith Roots Reproductive Action began offering help for organized group flights for abortion patients flying in from parts of Texas in response to the Texas bans a few years ago. Lamunyon Sanford said the organization is not currently planning to do the same for Arizona if the 1864 ban is enforced, but the nonprofit would consider that as an option.

“We will welcome anyone from Arizona,” she said.

One of the ways in which Faith Roots Reproductive Action have responded to the crisis in reproductive care occurring due to the abortion bans has been to expand its practical assistance to also include childcare stipends starting this past winter, Lamunyon Sanford said.

The Arizona Attorney General has announced that she will not enforce the 1864 law even if it does become enforceable, but Lamunyon Sanford said that does not preclude Arizona county attorneys or district attorneys or sheriff’s offices from trying to enforce the law.

“In 1864 the age of consent in Arizona was 10 years old. This was a package of laws the territorial legislature drafted and accepted and ten years old as the age of consent was a part of that. That puts this into the context of being so out of touch,” she said.