AZMirror: 'Abortions are banned in Arizona after the Supreme Court upholds an 1864 law'

 By Gloria Rebecca Gomez

Published April 9, 2024

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled to make abortion largely illegal in the Grand Canyon State, reinstating a 160-year-old law that forbids all procedures except those to save a woman’s life.

Justice John R. Lopez IV, writing for the court in a 4-2 split decision, said that a 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks of gestation depended on the existence of a federal constitutional right to abortion. And since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated that right in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling two years ago, that law can’t overrule one first passed in 1864, when Arizona was a territory.

“Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because (the 15-week abortion law) does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting (the 1864 law’s) operation. Accordingly, (the 1864 law) is now enforceable,” Lopez wrote.

Read more here.

See also:

• Arizona Supreme Court upholds law protecting most preborn children from abortion (liveaction.org)
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