On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 123-year-old law essentially banning abortion except to save the life of the mother. The law also carries possible prison sentences for abortion providers. At present the enforcement of the law is on a 14-day stay.

In a historic decision Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled the state must adhere to a 123-year-old penal code provision barring all abortions except in cases when “it is necessary to save” a pregnant person’s life. 

The law, which can be traced to as early as 1864, also carried a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. There is a 14-day stay on the law. 

The case is the latest high-profile example of the battle over abortion access that has played out across several states since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022. Since that decision, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure. Providers have warned that restrictive policies on abortion access place patients at risk of poor health outcomes and doctors at risk of legal liability.

This is the latest in a series of legal and legislative moves since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned the former Roe v. Wade decision, returning the responsibility for abortion law to the states.

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In 2022, Arizona passed a law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks' gestation, which conflicted with the older law.

Justices heard opening arguments in the case last December, when abortion rights opponents claimed the state should revert to the 1901 ban, and advocates asked the court to affirm the 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks, CNN previously reported.

When he signed the law in March 2022, then-Gov. Doug Ducey stated the 2022 law would not override the older law.

The Court found otherwise.

In late 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled both abortion laws in the state must be reconciled, or “harmonized,” and that abortion is legal through 15 weeks when provided by licensed physicians in compliance with the state’s other laws and regulations, CNN previously reported.

The state Supreme Court was asked for clarity following months of uncertainty and legal wrangling over which law should apply in the state.

On the national scale, Democrats are pushing abortion as one of the major issues for the 2024 election. Former President Trump recently released a statement on the issue, and there is a current discussion among Republicans as to whether there should be a national law governing abortion or if these laws should made at the state level.

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