Alaska judge rules a state law saying only doctors can provide abortions is unconstitutional

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska judge struck down Wednesday a decades-old state law that restricted who could perform abortions in the state.

The decision comes out of a 2019 lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which challenged the law that says only a doctor licensed by the State Medical Board can perform an abortion in Alaska.

Alaska Superior Court Judge Josie Garton in 2021 granted the group’s request to allow advanced practice clinicians to provide medication abortion pending her decision in the underlying case. Garton at that time said the organization was likely to succeed in its lawsuit challenging the law as unconstitutional.

Planned Parenthood in its lawsuit argued there was no medical justification for the restriction and noted that advanced practice clinicians — which include advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants — provide services that are “comparably or more complex” than medication abortion or aspiration, such as delivering babies and removing and inserting intrauterine contraceptive devices. Those care providers help fill a void in the largely rural state where some communities lack regular access to doctors, according to the group’s lawsuit.

Planned Parenthood also asked that an Alaska Board of Nursing policy that it said prevented advanced practice registered nurses from using aspiration in caring for women who suffered miscarriages be struck down as unconstitutional.

The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy in the state’s constitution as encompassing abortion rights.