US: Arizona Court Revives 1864 Law Banning Nearly All Abortions

<p>The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a law from 1864 banning nearly all abortions, reported news agency Reuters. In a 4-2 judgment, the court ruled in favour of an anti-abortion obstetrician and county prosecutor who pressed to implement the Civil War-ear statute after the Democratic attorney general of the key presidential battleground state declined to do so.&nbsp;</p> <p>The 1864 law, which is older than Arizona becoming a state, makes abortion punishable by two to five years in prison, except when the mother's life is at risk.&nbsp;</p> <p>The judgment came after months of legal wrangling about whether the pre-statehood legislation could be enforced after years of dormancy.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ: <a href="https://ift.tt/xkCEvo0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC Restructures Indian News Bureau Splitting Ops Amid Regulatory Scrutiny</a></strong></p> <p>According to a BBC report, many argued that the decades of state legislation effectively nullified the 1864 law, including a 2022 law that allowed to terminate pregnancy until 15 weeks.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Arizona top court agreed to review the case in August 2023 after a right-wing law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, moved the state apex court challenging a lower court ruling that said that the more recent law should stand.&nbsp;</p> <p>The top court said that the 1864 law was "now enforceable" because there were no federal or state protections for the procedure.</p> <p>The state high court ruled that the 160-year-old law could be enforced prospectively but stayed the implementation of its decision for 14 days to allow the parties to raise any remaining issues at the trial-court level.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ: <a href="https://ift.tt/JSVMmKP" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Witnessed Warmest March In 2024, Says EU As 12-Month Average Temperature Reaches New Record</a></strong></p> <p>Arizona Justice John Lopez, who was appointed by a Republican governor like all the state supreme court judges, wrote that the state's legislature "has never affirmatively created a right to, or independently authorised, elective abortion."</p> <p>"We defer, as we are constitutionally obligated to do, to the legislature's judgment, which is accountable to, and thus reflects, the mutable will of our citizens," Lopez wrote, as per the Reuters report.&nbsp;</p> <p>The state high court ruled that the 160-year-old law could be enforced prospectively but stayed the implementation of its decision for 14 days to allow the parties to raise any remaining issues at the trial-court level.&nbsp;</p>

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