An Arizona judge Friday rejected a request for an injunction halting enforcement of a 19th century law criminalizing abortion procedures.
One week after ruling a pre-statehood law was again enforceable after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson denied a request to suspend her ruling.
Fox News further reported:
In her decision, Johnson said abortion rights groups are not likely to prevail in appealing her initial decision so the abortion ban should remain enforceable.
Both rulings specifically prevent the state’s abortion providers from performing abortion procedures after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which determined that a woman had a constitutional right to abortion.
Following the June decision, legal battles sparked across the country, including the Pima County feud, over the legality of abortion.
On Sept. 23, Johnson ruled that a 1973 injunction must be lifted so that the Civil War-era law criminalizing abortion could be enforced.
Planned Parenthood and its Arizona affiliate urged Johnson on Monday to suspend her ruling — citing the injunction’s 50 years in effect as precedence — as they seek an appeal to a state abortion ban.
On Saturday, a law enacted by the state Legislature last spring banning abortion at 15 weeks took effect. The law was signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.
Brittany Fonteno, Planned Parenthood of Arizona President and CEO, said she was “outraged” by the ruling.
“It is impermissible that Arizonans are waking up each morning to their elected officials making conflicting statements about which laws are in effect or claiming that they do not know, and yet the court has refused to provide any clarity or relief,” Fonteno said.
Some clinics in Arizona have been referring patients to providers in California and New Mexico.
The Civil War-era law penalizes violators, such as doctors or anyone else who assists in abortion, with a sentence of two to five years in prison. The Legislature previously repealed a law that allowed the women who seek abortions to be penalized.
Arizona and 13 other states have banned abortions since Roe was overturned.
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