TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Paul Burch on Oct 30, 2023

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled unanimously that a group of health care providers can sue the state of Arizona over a law banning abortions from being performed solely because the fetus has a genetic abnormality. Reuters reports the panel did not address the merits of the challenge, finding only that the providers are entitled to pursue it in court. The providers, two doctors and medical associations, said the law was so vague they did not know when it applied. The panel found that the economic loss of not performing abortions that they otherwise would perform was enough to go forward with the lawsuit. The law was signed by Republican then-Gov. Doug Doucey in 2021 and makes nearly all abortions a crime punishable by prison. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat elected in 2022, has said she would not enforce it.