By Ray Stern | Arizona Republic
Arizona is one step closer to reviving a law from its territorial days that mandates prison time for abortion providers.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a 16-page motion with the Pima County Superior Court on Wednesday asking for the lifting of an injunction against the law now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
“We believe this is the best and most accurate state of the law,” Brnovich said in a prepared statement. “We know this is an important issue to so many Arizonans, and our hope is that the court will provide clarity and uniformity for our state.”
The move was feared by advocates for legal abortions since last year when it became clear the Supreme Court — made more conservative by three
Trump-appointed justices — could eliminate the federal protections for abortion with a ruling in Mississippi’s Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The court’s ruling took away the constitutional right to abortion and allows states to set their own abortion policies.
A few days later, Brnovich he said he would attempt to revive the 158-year-old territorial law, which authorities have not enforced since 1973.
Brnovich is a Republican in his second term who’s running to replace Democrat Mark Kelly in the U.S. Senate — if he can defeat his Republican competitors in the Aug. 2 primary election.
An abortion foe, he had previously joined an amicus brief for the plaintiffs in the Dobbs case and has defended provisions of a 2021 anti-abortion law all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
