An Arizona appeals court has ruled that abortions can be legally committed through 15 weeks gestation.
The Associated Press reported that abortionists cannot be prosecuted under a law protecting preborn children from abortion which predated statehood. After Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer, the state of abortion in Arizona was up in the air. The 1864 law was in conflict with a newer law, signed by Governor Doug Ducey, which protects preborn children from abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Originally, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson ruled that the 1864 law takes precedence, causing Planned Parenthood to appeal. The appeals court then blocked Johnson’s order allowing the 1864 law to stand. The appeals court’s newest decision affirms that abortionists cannot be prosecuted under the 1864 law.
Planned Parenthood is celebrating. “Let me be crystal clear that today is a good day,” Brittany Fonteno, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said. “The Arizona Court of Appeals has given us the clarity that Planned Parenthood Arizona has been seeking for months: When provided by licensed physicians in compliance with Arizona’s other laws and regulations, abortion through 15 weeks will remain legal.”
By 15 weeks, the preborn child’s organs are functioning. She can now grimace and smile, genitals are present, and hair has begun to grow. She has her own unique DNA, a beating heart, and is undeniably human. And due to a functioning nervous system in place by 12 weeks, she can almost certainly feel pain. This is a scientific reality coming to be embraced more and more, including by pro-abortion researchers — and it’s why surgeries performed in-utero use fetal anesthesia beginning at 14 weeks.
The Arizona ruling will mean that human beings will legally be killed, potentially subjected to violent abortion procedures, when they are capable of feeling pain. Despite what Planned Parenthood may claim, this isn’t a good development — it’s a tragic one.
