Ari­zona Supreme Court upholds Civ­il War-era abor­tion ban

The Ari­zona Supreme Court on Tues­day upheld a Civ­il War-era law that near­ly com­plete­ly bans all abor­tions in the state.
The deci­sion could play a major fac­tor in the 2024 elec­tion, in which vot­ers will like­ly weigh whether abor­tion rights should be added to the state’s con­sti­tu­tion.
Uphold­ing the 160-year old law, passed before Arizona’s state­hood, means that it will be “prospec­tive­ly enforced” by April 23. The law bans abor­tions with excep­tions in cas­es in which the moth­er faces imme­di­ate life-threat­en­ing con­di­tions, and man­dates a prison sen­tence of between two and five years for a health­care provider per­form­ing the pro­ce­dure unlaw­ful­ly.
Legal back­ground
Ari­zona has been ground-zero for state-lev­el debates on abor­tion access fol­low­ing the fed­er­al Supreme Court’s over­turn­ing of nation­al-lev­el pro­tec­tion …