Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Law Punishing Abortionists as Unlimited Abortion Ballot Battle Rages...

by Jordon Boyd at the Federalist

The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a law on Tuesday that imposes imprisonment of up to five years on anyone who executes a surgical or chemical abortion in the state, except to save the life of the child’s mother.

The law, first enacted in 1864, effectively outlaws abortion beginning at conception except to save the mother. It was put on hold after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling but became the center of attention again shortly after Dobbs v. Jackson.

The same year the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision tossing Roe, the Arizona legislature and then-Gov. Doug Ducey worked together to pass a law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks gestation but noted it would not supersede the previous law.

The Arizona Court of Appeals claimed in a ruling later that year that, despite both laws’ strict limits on abortion, a “harmonized” version allowed for abortion through 15 weeks “when provided by licensed physicians in compliance with the state’s other laws and regulations.”

The Arizona Supreme Court, however,…