PHOENIX (AP) — A lawyer for several Arizona abortion providers urged a federal judge Wednesday to block a new state law that would allow prosecutors to charge doctors who knowingly terminate a pregnancy solely because the fetus has a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome. “There are women in Arizona whose access to abortion will be eliminated altogether,” Nestler said. States enacted more than 90 new restrictions on abortion this year, the most in decades, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. It also requires doctors to tell women that Arizona law “prohibits abortion of the unborn child’s sex or race or because of a genetic abnormality” — which Catlett acknowledged was an “inartful” description of what the law actually does. The measure allows prosecutors to seek felony charges against doctors who provide abortions when they know it’s solely because of a genetic abnormality in the fetus.

Source: thestar September 23, 2021 00:45 UTC