Arizona’s law barring abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy was struck down as unconstitutional Tuesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The unanimous panel held states cannot narrow the terms of the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which allows women to have abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy.
“A woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable,” wrote Judge Marsha Berzon. “A prohibition on the exercise of that right is per se unconstitutional.”
She said that the Arizona law’s “medical emergency exception does not transform the law from a prohibition on abortion into a regulation of abortion procedure.”
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law, HB2036, into law April 12, 2012, limiting athe availability of abortions in the state.
Three obstetrician-gynecologists who practice in Arizona sued. The trial court denied the doctors’ request for preliminary injunctions or for a judgment declaring the state law unconstitutional. That decision was appealed.
In a separate concurrence, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote, “Arizona has unquestionably put a ‘substantial obstacle’ in the path of a woman seeking to abort a previability fetus,” Berzon said. Women cannot receive an abortion after 20 weeks unless she has a medical emergency.
The panel reversed the denial of the injunction and declaratory judgment saying, “Arizona simply cannot proscribe a woman from choosing to obtain an abortion before the fetus is viable.”
Kleinfeld is a Republican appointee from the conservative wing of the court while Berzon was a Democrat appointee at the liberal end of the court.
Berzon and Kleinfeld were joined by Judge Mary Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter.
Case: Isaacson v. Horne, No. 12-16670
TrialInsider.com 