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High court: Arizona can enforce genetic issue abortion ban

Dr. Jill Gibson, Medical director for Planned Parenthood Arizona, speaks with her staff Thursday, June 30, 2022 at the Planned Parenthood facility in Tempe, Ariz. Planned Parenthood Arizona stopped performing abortions immediately after the Supreme Court's ruling because they were worried about a pre-statehood law making it a crime to perform an abortion or assist in any way, unless the life of the mother is threatened.
AP Photo/Matt York
Dr. Jill Gibson, Medical director for Planned Parenthood Arizona, speaks with her staff Thursday, June 30, 2022 at the Planned Parenthood facility in Tempe, Ariz. Planned Parenthood Arizona stopped performing abortions immediately after the Supreme Court's ruling because they were worried about a pre-statehood law making it a crime to perform an abortion or assist in any way, unless the life of the mother is threatened.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed enforcement of a 2021 Arizona law that lets prosecutors bring felony charges against doctors who knowingly terminate pregnancies solely because the fetuses have a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome.

Thursday's decision comes in the wake of the high court’s June 24 decision that said women have no constitutional right to obtain an abortion.

It has no immediate effect because Arizona providers stopped all abortions following last Friday’s Supreme Court ruling.

It was unclear if a pre-statehood law banning all abortions was enforceable, but Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Wednesday it can be.

Democratic attorney general candidate Kris Mays says Brnovich “just took us back to 1901.”