{"id":327389,"date":"2025-03-07T08:52:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T14:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=327389"},"modified":"2025-04-01T20:08:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T01:08:27","slug":"arizona-judge-permanently-overturns-15-week-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/arizona-judge-permanently-overturns-15-week-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona judge ‘permanently and forever’ overturns 15-week protections for preborn children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Arizona judge has permanently blocked the state’s law protecting preborn children from abortion after 15 weeks, declaring the law “unconstitutional” after voters passed Proposition 139, an amendment enshrining abortion as a constitutional ‘right.’<\/p>\n

With the ruling, all abortions are allowed up to the entirely subjective point of ‘fetal viability,’ as determined by the abortionist, and are allowed even through all nine months<\/a> if a doctor determines it is necessary “to protect the life or health” of the mother.<\/p>\n

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Frank Moskowitz “permanently and forever” blocked the 15-week law at the request of state abortionists, who filed a lawsuit<\/a> in December to halt the protections for preborn children. At that time, Governor Katie Hobbs voiced her support of the law’s repeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cArizonans made it clear that they support reproductive freedom, and there is no question that a ban with no exceptions for rape or incest should be removed from our laws,\u201d she\u00a0said<\/a>, adding she was \u201cglad Arizonans are working to finish the job and enforce the constitutional protections we now enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney General Kris Mayes also noted in December that even though the 15-week law was in effect at that time, her office would refuse to enforce it.<\/p>\n

The most common abortion procedure in the second trimester is a dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure, also sometimes referred to as a dismemberment abortion. This procedure, which usually takes several days and begins with the abortionist forcibly dilating the woman’s cervix, first with laminaria (thin sticks of seaweed that expand over time) at home, and then with a metal speculum in the facility. After it is sufficiently dilated, the abortionist uses a sharp instrument called a sopher clamp to tear the preborn baby’s limbs from his body.<\/p>\n