Arizona is being sued by abortion providers who are against the state's new rules limiting access to the most used abortion drugs.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Planned Parenthood Arizona and Tucson Women's Center, claims the new rules that were installed under a 2012 law prohibit women's access to abortions, the Associated Press reported.
"Arizona is simply trying to rob women of their constitutionally protected rights," Center for Reproductive Rights attorney David Brown told the AP.
The rules from the 2012 law, set to take effect April 1, will require the most common drugs that induce abortion only be handed out in amounts approved by the FDA and be taken at a clinic. Furthermore, women cannot take the drugs if they are past seven weeks pregnant, as opposed to the previous nine weeks.
The dosage that women usually take is lower than FDA approved standards. For example, the abortion drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is routinely offered by doctors in dosages lower than FDA standards because doctors realized it is just as effective when used with a second drug.
The new law increases the chance of complications, the AP reported.
"It's clear the real purpose of House Bill 2026 was to restrict access to safe legal abortion in Arizona and to interfere in a woman's private medical decisions," Bryan Howard, president of Planned Parenthood Arizona, told the AP. "Planned Parenthood will continue to fight these dangerous laws with everything we have."
The 2012 law is just one of many anti-abortion measures Arizona has passed or attempted to pass. Another bill was passed that allows random, warrant-less inspections of abortion clinics. A 2012 measure banned abortions after 20 weeks, but the courts later overturned that ban.
The anti-abortion group Center for Arizona Policy, which lobbied for the 2012 law, criticized Planned Parenthood's lawsuit.
"It's a shame that when Planned Parenthood can't win public opinion, they try to use the courts to impose their will and bail out their abortion business," the center's Cathi Herrod told the AP.
