PHOENIX — Jordan Johnson, 29, was one of several patients who waded through a half dozen anti-abortion activists on Thursday while making her way into the Acacia Women’s Center. Just two days after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 abortion ban was enforceable, the activists were outside the clinic, yelling at women not to go in and running up to cars entering the parking lot.
“Walking past those guys was very angering and emotional,” Johnson told NBC News just before her appointment for an abortion. She responded to the activists with an expletive-laden demand to leave her alone. “If they’re going to yell things at me, I’m not holding back.”
Johnson was at the clinic to see Dr. Ronald Yunis, a long-time OB-GYN. Just outside his office, protesters stood on the sidewalk with large, red signs displaying Yunis’ name and face, alleging that the doctor “kills 150 innocent babies here every month.”
On Tuesday, the state’s high court ruled in favor of an 1864 policy that outlawed abortion from the moment of conception, with an exception to save the woman’s life. It made abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performed an abortion or helped a person obtain one. Tuesday’s decision effectively reverses a lower court’s ruling that held that a recent 15-week ban superseded the law.
Even with pro-abortion-rights protests being held across the state, an effort to put a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights on Arizona’s November ballot, and vows from elected officials to thwart the ruling, patients who spoke to NBC News said they were disappointed in the state’s failure to protect abortion rights, and are making plans for an uncertain future.
“It is absolutely heartbreaking to know that there are so many women who are going to hurt themselves or come to other means because they can’t medically get one the way…
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