Court won't revive Arizona's 20-week abortion ban
http://gazette.com/court-wont-revive-arizonas-20-week-abortion-ban/article/feed/78268
Court won't revive Arizona's 20-week abortion ban
Updated: January 13, 2014 at 8:01 pm Published: January 13, 2014
PHOENIX (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Arizona's attempt to implement a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a development that doesn't disturb most of the similar prohibitions that other states have on the books.
The justices declined to reconsider a federal appeals court's ruling that the Arizona law violates a woman's constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb.
"Viability" of a fetus is generally considered to start at 24 weeks. Normal pregnancies run about 40 weeks.
Gov. Jan Brewer signed the ban into law in April 2012. Nine other states have enacted similar bans starting at 20 weeks or even earlier.