On July 30, 2012 children in Arizona were for a short time recognized as fully human...
From Roto-Reuters:
Judge clears Arizona late-term abortion ban
A federal judge refused on Monday to block an Arizona law banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, saying it does not impose a "substantial obstacle" to the procedure, and cleared the way for the statute to take effect on Thursday.
The ruling marked a
stinging legal defeat for abortion-rights advocates who cited the
Arizona law as the most extreme example of late-term abortion
prohibitions enacted in more than half a dozen states, and they vowed to
immediately appeal the decision.
U.S. District Judge
James Teilborg ruled that the measure, passed by the
Republican-controlled state legislature and signed into law in April by
Republican Governor Jan Brewer, was consistent with the standards that
federal courts have set on limits to late-term abortions.
The statute was challenged this month by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights
in a lawsuit believed to be the first court case of its kind against
late-term abortion bans, attorneys for the plaintiffs said.
Under the Arizona
law, physicians found in violation of the ban would face a misdemeanor
criminal charge and possible suspension or revocation of their licenses.
Teilborg said Arizona's law "does not impose a substantial obstacle" to abortions generally and that Arizona had the right to enact such a measure.
The Arizona statute
bars doctors from performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy
except in the case of a medical emergency, a circumstance critics say is
defined more narrowly than exemptions permitted by other states with
similar laws.
The Arizona ban provides an exemption only in cases in which an "immediate" abortion is required to avert death or risk of "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."
Late-term bans
elsewhere, by comparison, generally allow an abortion when the mother's
life or health would otherwise be in jeopardy, abortion-rights advocates
say...
You see, kiddies, the less specific the law's language, the easier it is for the babykillers to to chop up kids whose mom's have colds.
...then, on August 1, 2012 the same children were declared to be chattel...
From The "Christian Science" Monitor:
A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked enforcement of a tough new Arizona abortion law that bars doctors from routinely terminating a pregnancy after 20 weeks.
The emergency injunction granted by the three-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals prevents the law from taking full effect as scheduled on Thursday.
The ruling was not a decision on the merits of the law itself, but was still hailed by activists who had appealed to the Ninth Circuit after a lower court judge upheld the measure this week.
“We are relieved that the court blocked this dangerous ban and that women in Arizona will continue to be able to get safe, appropriate medical care,” Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement.
The
statute, signed on April 12 and known as SB 2036, reduces by three to
four weeks the amount of time a woman would have to decide on whether to
end her pregnancy or carry the child to term. It allows doctors to perform an abortion after 20 weeks, but only in cases of “medical emergency.”
Arizona
is among 10 states that have enacted laws seeking to regulate the
provision of abortions during the time in a pregnancy when the fetus is
unable to survive on its own outside the womb.
Doctors consider the point of fetal viability to arrive 23 or 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
A
group of physicians in Arizona asked a federal judge to block the law
and rule that it violates a woman’s right to decide whether to have an
abortion.
On Monday, US
District Judge James Teilborg found that the state law was a permissible
regulation of abortion and did not violate constitutional protections.
In her motion to the court, Janet Crepps, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said her clients perform more than 50 pre-viability abortions at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy per year.
$20 says Judge Teilborg is now on the Death Squad's list.
They
were “very likely to have such a patient within the next several days
and almost certain to have such a patient within the next 21 days,” she
wrote.
Lawyers for Arizona had
urged the Ninth Circuit panel to reject the appeal, saying the lawsuit
was an impermissible challenge to an abortion regulation under the terms
of a 2007 US Supreme Court precedent.
Douglas Irish, deputy county attorney in Maricopa County, said in his brief that any challenge to the Arizona law must be made on behalf of a pregnant woman seeking an abortion at or beyond the law’s 20-week limit.
Irish
said Supreme Court precedent has shifted since a key ruling in 2007
when the high court approved a ban on so-called partial-birth abortions
regardless of when they were performed during a pregnancy.
Arizona
lawyers argue that the 2007 decision opens the door to state
regulations extending into the pre-viability period of a pregnancy.
The judges ordered both parties to file appellate briefs in September and October. The order said the case would be expedited.
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