AZ Abortion Law Put on Hold

Provisions in a new Arizona law that ban most abortions after 20 weeks gestation did not go into effect last week as scheduled. That’s because a panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union appealed a federal district court’s ruling earlier last week that upheld the law as constitutional.

The appeal asks the court to stop the law from taking effect until the appeals process has been exhausted. A full panel of the 9th Circuit is expected to consider the lawsuit this fall.

Nebraska became the first state to enact a ban on late-term abortions based on fetal pain in 2010. Since then, a growing number of states, including Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, and Louisiana have enacted similar laws.