Following the alarming trend of anti-choice legislation Arizona has taken it a step farther. A Judge has upheld the federal court decision upholding Arizona’s unconstitutional pre-viability ban on abortion to take effect.
U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg today denied a request to temporarily block the law from taking effect on August 2. The Judge also issued a final ruling upholding the statute. The law bans all abortion procedures at 20 weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period (LMP) without any exceptions for a pregnant woman’s life or health unless she is experiencing a dire and possibly life-threatening emergency.
The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that states cannot ban abortion before viability(usually thought to be around 23 or 24 weeks) and only then as long as such restrictions have an exception for the health or life of the mother. The Supreme Court has not allowed bans prior to that point in pregnancy. In fact in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992) the Supreme Court recognized viability as the point at which the state interest in the life of the fetus outweighs the rights of the woman and abortion may be banned entirely "except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother".
For more on this disturbing ruling head over to the the press release from the Center For Reproductive Rights.
Or to Mother Jones for more reactions.
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