Arizona Law Criminalizing Abortion After 20 Weeks Blocked

A federal appeals court has struck it down.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a unanimous ruling that the measure violates controlling U.S. Supreme Court precedent under the court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.

“While the state may regulate the mode and manner of abortion prior to fetal viability, it may not proscribe a woman from electing abortion, nor may it impose an undue burden on her choice through regulation,” the court said…

The state’s law made it a misdemeanor, punishable by as long as six months in jail, to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in medical emergencies and to prevent the mother’s death or “irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

…The Arizona law, which had been set to take effect Aug. 2, 2012, was put on hold by the federal appeals court pending the outcome of the appeal.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.