Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow the state’s to ban abortions based on genetic abnormalities to take effect.
Abortion Restrictions
In September, a federal district court temporarily halted the execution of Arizona’s statute and the U.S. Last month, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes, an Obama appointee, concluded that the statute will likely impose an unconstitutional restriction on abortion before fetal viability, which occurs about 24 weeks and was acknowledged by the Supreme Court in Roe and later cases.
The move by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) is the latest in a series of disputes with the Supreme Court this term over GOP-crafted abortion restrictions as the court considers Mississippi’s fate in light of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Brnovich’s motion, which was sent to Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees Arizona’s emergency cases, comes after the state lost two rounds in the lower courts, where the law is still blocked. The dispute rise after Arizona in April enacted the S.B. 1457 law which makes it a crime to perform an abortion that is sought “solely because of a genetic abnormality of the child.”
Emergency Request to the Supreme Court.
Brnovich filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court in San Francisco refused to overrule the judge’s judgment late last month. Moreover, the move comes less than a week after a divided Supreme Court upheld Texas’ six-week abortion restriction, leaving just a small window of opportunity for challenges in federal court. Separately, the judges are reviewing a Mississippi legislation that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks, a battle that directly challenges the right to pre-viability abortions, which was established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade.
