Arizona's GOP leaders could quickly fix Arizona's abortion law. Here's why they won't

Last week, a 14-year-old Tucson girl was denied a drug that she’s been taking for years.

The teen suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis and needs methotrexate to manage the disease, according to KOLD, a Tucson television station.

But methotrexate also can be used to induce an abortion so the kid was sent packing by her friendly neighborhood pharmacy. She eventually was granted a refill but it took her parents and her pediatrician pitching an absolute fit to make it happen.

That’s because in Arizona, abortion is now not only illegal but a crime.

Yet a new state law that presumably took effect two weeks ago says abortion is legal during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

So which is it?

Pharmacies don’t seem to know what they can and cannot do. Neither do hospitals. Prosecutors are mostly dodging the question.

And 14-year-girls are now apparently suspect.

Ducey should summon the Legislature today

The appellate courts eventually will sort it out but not anytime soon. Meantime, real people are being hurt in real time.

If ever there was a need to call the Arizona Legislature back to the state Capitol to settle the question, this is it.

Sadly, that would require political courage, a commodity that is in short supply in the best of times and with just a month until voters to go the polls?

Raise your hand if you think Arizona’s Republican leaders are eager to take a stand.

Anybody?

It would seem a slam-dunk that the Republican-run Legislature would support the territorial-era law – the one that makes it a crime to help anyone other than a dying woman get an abortion.

For years, Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican legislators have worked to whittle away a woman’s right to choose what will happen to her own body, passing restriction after restriction to see just how far they could go without running afoul of Roe v. Wade. Just a few months ago, they passed a bill outlawing abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, even in the case of rape victims.

But before that law took effect, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped women of their right to abortion, throwing the issue back to the states. Two weeks ago, a Pima County judge ruled that Arizona’s territorial ban on abortion – the one that was blocked 49 years ago when Roe took effect – is now once again enforceable.

Her decision is being appealed but she has declined to delay enforcement of the 158-year-old law.

Meanwhile, Ducey has said that the bill that he signed into law just before the demise of Roe – the one banning abortion after 15 weeks -- is the law that should take precedent.

Here's why our leaders won't take action

Count prosecutors among the confused, given the conflict.

“The confusion isn’t that we can’t read the law, we can’t reconcile the law,” Coconino County Attorney William Ring told Cronkite News.

What isn’t confusing is where voters stand. Polls show the vast majority of Arizona voters believe abortion should be legal up to some point.

As the Nov. 8 election nears, the issue is at the top of many voters’ minds -- especially those all-important moderate Republican women and independent voters who will decide Arizona’s elections.

That’s probably why Kari Lake now appears to be pivoting on abortion. During the Republican governor’s debate, Lake flatly said she supported the territorial-era abortion ban. But on Tuesday, she told KTAR's Mike Broomhead that abortion should be legal.

“It would be really wonderful if abortion was rare and legal,” Lake said.

Her spokesman later  tried to walk back Lake's comment, telling the Associated Press she didn't mean to use the word "legal."

Hobbs, meanwhile, has consistently said the decision about abortion “should rest solely between a woman and her doctor.” She has vowed to push the Legislature to repeal the abortion ban if she’s elected.

But we shouldn’t have to wait until January to find out whether abortion is a crime – whether anyone who “provides, supplies or administers” any pill or procedure that results in abortion should go to prison for a mandatory two to five years.

Whether a rape victim should be forced to bear her attacker's baby. Whether a woman will have at least some limited say in what happens to her body.

Ducey should call the Legislature back to the Capitol now. Today. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours for our leaders to give us clarity on an issue that, frankly, just cannot wait.

Does abortion constitute criminal activity?

Or is it, up to 15 weeks, an allowable health care decision best left to a woman and her doctor?

Only the Republicans who control Arizona can answer that.

But they won’t. Early ballots, after all, come out in six days,

Raise your hand if you think Arizona's Republican legislators have any intention of returning to the Capitol to show us just how out of touch they are with Arizona’s voters?

Anybody?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GOP leaders could fix Arizona's abortion law. Here's why they won't