(LifeSiteNews) – The Alaska Supreme Court is considering the fate of a state law requiring abortionists to hold medical licenses, a standard a number of abortion facilities in the state cannot satisfy.

As previously covered, Planned Parenthood first challenged the law in 2019, and last year state Superior Court Judge Josie Garton struck it down, arguing there was “no medical reason why abortion is regulated more restrictively than any other reproductive health care.” The state appealed, prompting Alaska’s highest court to take up the matter.

Oral arguments began last Wednesday, the Alaska Beacon reported, during which government attorney Laura Wolff argued that Garton had misapplied the state-level right to privacy.

“The privacy clause analysis requires a significant impairment,” she argued. “Not a modest, not a medium, a moderate, a significant impairment, in order to even trigger the privacy clause.”

More fundamentally, the state asserted a legitimate government interest toward “ensuring that these procedures ending fetal life are performed ethically, professionally, and under a uniform standard.”

Planned Parenthood attorney Camila Vega argued that restricting who patients can see for abortions violates the principle of equal protection, and that the right to privacy is not contingent on the number of people affected.

The justices concluded proceedings without saying when a verdict would be announced.

The matter of basic health and safety standards for the abortion industry is a recurring point for policymakers because abortion, which despite persistent media narratives is almost never sought for “medical” reasons, has long been known to carry significant risks on top of its intended lethality to preborn babies. Yet the industry overwhelmingly resists such measures, prioritizing maximum abortion “access” over patient welfare.

Abortion clinics across the country are regularly flagged for harming women through botched procedures, unsanitary tools and environments, and lack of regulatory protections such as requirements for staff to secure admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in the event of complications. With the rise of services dispensing abortion pills by mail in violation of federal law, chemical abortions self-administered completely without medical oversight are certain to increase those harms further still.

Even when “properly” performed, abortions still carry grave risks. According to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which represents 7,000 medical professionals who reject the left-wing orthodoxy of the medical establishment, “(w)omen face a 35% increased risk of preterm birth in a future pregnancy after one surgical abortion and an almost 90% increase in preterm birth risk after two abortions. The increased risk of future preterm birth for women after they have an abortion represents a clear long-term health risk. Mothers who deliver preterm babies are at a higher risk of medical complications later in life, including cardiovascular disease and stroke.”

“From 1993 to 2018, there are at least 75 studies examining the link between abortion and mental health,” the group continues. “Two-thirds of those studies showed a correlation between abortion and adverse mental health outcomes. Studies show abortion significantly increases the risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior when compared to women with unintended pregnancies who choose to carry the baby to birth. A study from Finland found a 7X higher suicide rate after abortion compared to when women gave birth.”