Arizona asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to allow a ban on abortions of fetuses with genetic abnormalities to take effect, reversing a lower court’s blocking of the law, hoping to capitalize on the court’s apparent willingness to support abortion restrictions.
Pro- and anti-abortion rights demonstrators gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 01 … [+]
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court’s ruling, which blocked the state law, passed in April, which makes it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion because a fetus has a genetic abnormality like Down syndrome, as well as allows prosecutors to charge anyone who helped fund such an abortion.
A district court judge issued an injunction blocking aspects of the law in September before it could go into effect, ruling it was too vague, and saying it amounted to “state-mandated misinformation.”
The court left other aspects of the law in place, however, including granting fetuses “all the rights, privileges and immunities” granted to people under the Constitution.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift the district court’s injunction.
Arizona is asking the court to lift the injunction while the case is appealed, arguing it should be allowed to go into effect because the abortion ban falls under the state’s police power and Arizona has a “a legitimate interest ‘in promoting the life or potential life of the unborn’” under previous Supreme Court rulings.
6. That’s the number of states that have laws in effect prohibiting abortions because the fetus has a genetic abnormality, according to the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute: Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee. An additional five states including Arizona have had their laws at least temporarily blocked in court. Appeals courts have been split on abortion restrictions based on genetic issues, with the 6th Circuit previously upholding Ohio’s law while the 7th and 8th Circuits have ruled against similar policies.
Arizona’s petition comes as the conservative-leaning court considers multiple major abortion cases this term—and has signaled it’s more likely to side with those that oppose the procedure. The court heard arguments December 1 in a case challenging Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which broadly considers whether states can restrict abortions even before the fetus is viable and could result in Roe v. Wade, which granted the federal right to an abortion, being significantly weakened or overturned. Conservative justices signaled during the hearing they were likely to take Mississippi’s side and uphold the law. The court then ruled Friday on two legal challenges to Texas’ near-total ban on abortion, which prohibits nearly all abortions after approximately six weeks.
Arizona passes sweeping anti-abortion bill banning procedure for genetic issues (The Guardian)
Key part of Arizona genetic-abnormality abortion law blocked (Associated Press)
Texas Abortion Law: Here’s What Happens Next After Supreme Court Refuses To Block It (Forbes)
Supreme Court Signals It Could Restrict Abortion In Landmark Mississippi Case (Forbes)
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