Supreme Court Blocks Arizona 20 Week Abortion Ban

We ask for your prayers as we regret to announce that the United States Supreme Court today blocked Arizona from enforcing a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the latest blow for states that have tried to enact strict abortion laws.

The high court declined to hear an appeal from Arizona leaving in place a prior ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that determined the law was unconstitutional which effectively strikes down the law.

Governor Jan Brewer had signed the ban in April of 2012 joining nine other states who have enacted similar bans starting at 20 weeks or earlier. But several of those bans had previously been placed on hold or struck down by other courts and this decision could further embolden opponents of those laws. In its ruling, the federal appeals court said the 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 while normal pregnancies run about 40 weeks.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that such bans violate a long string of Supreme Court rulings starting with the seminal Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 but supporters of the legislation said the law was meant to protect the mother’s health and prevent fetuses from feeling pain.

U.S. District Judge James Teilborg originally ruled it was constitutional, partly because of those concerns but the 9th Circuit blocked the ban. Lawyers representing Arizona argued that the ban wasn’t technically a law but rather a medical regulation because it allowed for doctors to perform abortions in medical emergencies.

As our court system determines that it’s power is more holy than God’s, I ask you to pray:

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.
I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.
I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all,
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen!