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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Ruling Expected Soon on Latest AZ Effort to Restrict Abortions

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Thursday, March 21, 2013   

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Arizona is expected to find out soon if a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will be upheld by a federal appeals court. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law enacted last year from taking effect while it is considering an appeal from abortion rights groups.

ACLU Executive Director Alessandra Soler expects the court to strike down the law. She said backers of the 20-week abortion ban face an uphill battle.

"Case law is not on their side," she said. "The Supreme Court has clearly stated that anything [banning abortion] pre-viability, which is 23-24 weeks, is considered unconstitutional. These are shameful attacks on women's health, and we're going to do whatever we can to challenge them."

She noted that earlier this month the same court struck down a similar law in Idaho. Supporters of Arizona's law say it is meant to protect the health of women and prevent fetuses from feeling pain.

Eight other states have enacted 20-week abortion bans in the past three years, based on controversial medical research suggesting a fetus can feel pain starting in the 20th week. Arkansas recently passed a 12-week ban, and bills banning abortions at six weeks - and banning them altogether - are currently before the North Dakota legislature.

Soler said it is no secret that anti-abortion activists are hoping to prod the U.S. Supreme Court into reconsidering and possibly overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

"It's clearly an assault on women's reproductive health," Soler said. "Women have a constitutional right to make decisions about their own health care. Politicians should not interfere in these private decisions."

It's not possible to predict exactly when the 9th Circuit Court will rule on the Arizona law, but Soler said it should be in the next several days.

"We're starting to get decisions in other cases that were argued at the same time, and usually those decisions are issued in that kind of order. We do expect a decision soon."

A ruling by the 9th Circuit would be binding only in its nine-state region, which includes Arizona and Idaho.

The Arizona case is Isaacson v. Horne.




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