Abortions can take place again in Arizona, at least for now, after an appeals court on Friday blocked the application of a law that was enacted before Arizona received statehood and that almost completely criminalized the procedure. .
The three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals agreed with Planned Parenthood that Pima Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson should not have lifted the decades-old order barring enforcement of the law.
Friday’s order written by Chief Judge Peter J. Eckerstrom says Planned Parenthood and its Arizona affiliate have shown they are likely to win an appeal of the Tucson judge’s decision to allow the old law to apply.
They argued that the judge should have taken into account a series of laws restricting abortions that have been passed since the original injunction was ordered in the wake of the 1973 US Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, who argued that women have a constitutional right to abortion.
Among those laws is one that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of gestation and that came into force last month. The previous term was 24 weeks, the viability standard established in the cases decided by the federal Supreme Court and that are now annulled.
In June, the Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade, and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich then called for the lifting of the injunction blocking enforcement of the pre-state abortion law.
That injunction had been issued in 1973, shortly after Roe was decided. Judge Johnson ruled in favor of the prosecution on September 23 and lifted the order two weeks ago.