Obstetrician appeals decision over Arizona abortion law

PHOENIX (AP) — The medical director of anti-abortion pregnancy centers in metro Phoenix has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision that concluded abortion doctors couldn’t be prosecuted under a pre-statehood law that bans the procedure in nearly all cases.

In an appeal filed Wednesday, Dr. Eric Hazelrigg seeks to reverse an Arizona Court of Appeals ruling that said doctors couldn’t be charged for performing abortions in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy because other Arizona laws passed over the years allow them to perform the procedure.

Abortions are currently allowed in Arizona in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy under a 2022 law.

The 1864 law that Hazelrigg is challenging imposes a near total ban on abortions, providing no exceptions for rape or incest and allowing abortions only if a mother’s life is in danger.

In late December, the Arizona Court of Appeals said it wasn’t viewing the pre-statehood law in isolation of other statutes and concluded the state’s laws make it clear doctors are permitted to perform abortions.

It said the 1864 law can coexist with the law that allows the procedure through the 15th week of pregnancy. Non-doctors would still be subject to prosecution under the old law, the appeals court said.

A court blocked enforcement of the law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in June, then-Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich succeeded in getting a state judge in Tucson to lift a court order blocking its enforcement.

In Hazelrigg’s appeal, lawyers for the obstetrician said the court incorrectly concluded that the law doesn’t apply to doctors. They argued Arizona’s laws don’t...