State v. New Times, INC (1973)

In the 1973 case State v. New Times, INC, the Arizona Court of Appeals in Phoenix, Arizona, ruled that Arizona Revised Statutes 13-211, 13-212, and 13-213, collectively called the Arizona abortion [3] statutes, were unconstitutional. The statues made it illegal for anyone to receive, provide, or advertise abortion [3] services. The Arizona Court of Appeals reviewed a case in which a city court in Tempe, Arizona, convicted the New Times, a newspaper headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, of advertising abortion [3]. In hearing the case, the Arizona Court of Appeals deferred to the recently decided US Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade [4] (1973). In Roe v. Wade [4], the US Supreme Court ruled that women have constitutional rights to abortion [3] services within the first trimester [5] of pregnancy [6]. Accordingly, the Arizona Court of Appeals claimed that all of Arizona's abortion [3] statutes, including the one the New Times was convicted of, prohibited no criminal acts, and set aside New Times's conviction.