AG Mayes Issues Opinion on ‘Medical Emergency’ Abortions

Arizona’s Democrat Attorney General, Kris Mayes, issued an opinion on June 27, 2024, attempting to clarify what constitutes a “medical emergency” related to the 15-week abortion law signed into law in 2022 by then Governor Doug Ducey. The opinion, dispelling the myth that a woman must be “on her deathbed” to receive an emergency abortion, is partly intended to shield doctors from legal hot water for providing such medical procedures.

Mayes’ opinion, sent to members of the legislature’s Democrat leadership, addresses how an attending physician needs to handle such a situation. It read, “First, she must exercise clinical judgment. Second, the treating physician must determine in good faith that, based on her clinical judgment, either ‘a condition … so complicates the medical condition of a pregnant woman as to necessitate the immediate abortion of her pregnancy to avert her death,’ or ‘a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.'”

It continues by defining “good faith” as an “authentic notion that the woman getting treatment is in an emergency.”