Alaska’s largest abortion business if facing mounting difficulties in finding local doctors who will agree to perform abortions.

To remedy this, Planned Parenthood is hoping the Alaska Supreme Court will overturn a state law that requires chemical abortionists to be certified doctors.

On Oct. 29, the state’s high court will hear oral arguments, as Planned Parenthood attempts to make the case that nurse practitioners and physician assistants are suitable abortionists in lieu of a bona fide doctor. They are not currently challenging the law that requires surgical abortionists to be licensed physicians.

If Planned Parenthood gets its way, the abortion business has argued that it will be able to vastly expand the days and hours during which it can abort Alaska’s preborn babies.

Overturning the state law could make it much easier for abortionists to gain access to teenage girls by offering chemical abortions through school nurse offices and youth centers without parental knowledge.

According to court documents, Planned Parenthood cannot staff its Alaska clinics with full-time physicians due to the cost of hiring and “the difficulty of recruiting them.” Instead, it hires “per diem physicians” to abort the preborn.

When the lower court struck down the state law, Superior Court Judge Josie Garton claimed it violates patients’ state constitutional privacy right to make reproductive decisions, because it limits the widespread availability of abortion.

The lower court also claims the state law violates Alaska’s equal protection clause, because it does not ban non-physicians from caring for women experiencing miscarriage. The argument is that women suffering from miscarriage are “similarly situated” as those actively seeking an abortion, and therefore the law treats patients differently based on their “reproductive choices.”

The state is arguing that the law does not hinder abortion to the point at which the court should overturn a duly enacted law aimed at safeguarding women’s health.

In 2021, Alaska Superior Court Judge Josie Garton sided with Planned Parenthood in temporarily blocking the state law. Last year, she made that injunction permanent, which spurred an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court.

Roughly six in 10 Alaska abortions are now performed via chemical death. These abortions typically involve RU-486, which is used on babies who are up to about two months gestation. After the first round of drugs is administered, up to 30% of women abort later at home or work, and as many as five days later. There are serious and well-documented medical side effects of RU-486 abortions, including prolonged, severe bleeding and life-threatening systemic infection.

Some pro-life advocates have argued that overturning the state law makes it much easier for abortionists to gain access to teenage girls by offering them chemical abortions through school nurse offices and youth centers without any parental knowledge.

To watch the Oct. 29 oral arguments before the Alaska Supreme Court, click here.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.