Arizona’s attorney general has agreed not to enforce a near-total ban on abortions at least until next year.
On Thursday, Planned Parenthood said services would resume statewide, including at clinics in metro Phoenix and in Flagstaff.
The only exception to the law is if the mother's life is in jeopardy. The pre-statehood abortion ban law had been blocked since Roe was decided in 1973, but Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked a court in Tucson to allow it to be enforced this summer. The law dating to 1864 carries a prison sentence of two to five years.
Meanwhile, a Phoenix physician who runs a clinic that provides abortions and the Arizona Medical Association, arguing that laws enacted by the Legislature after 1973′s Roe v. Wade decision should take precedence and abortions should be allowed until 15 weeks into a pregnancy. Brnovich sought to place that lawsuit on hold until the court of appeals rules on the Planned Parenthood case. In an agreement with the abortion rights groups, he agreed not to enforce the old law until at least 45 days after a final ruling in the original case.