Arizona cleared to enforce abortion ban

The US state of Arizona can enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years, a judge has ruled.

The ruling means clinics statewide will have to shut down and stop providing the procedures to avoid the filing of criminal charges against doctors and other medical workers.

The judge lifted a decades-old injunction that blocked enforcement of a law that had been on the books since before Arizona became a state.

The only exemption to the ban is if the woman’s life is in jeopardy.

The ruling takes effect immediately, although an appeal is possible.

Abortion providers have been on a roller coaster since the US Supreme Court in June overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing women a constitutional right to an abortion.

At first providers shut down operations, then re-opened, and now have to close again.

Planned Parenthood had urged the judge not to allow enforcement.

“This decision is out of step with the will of Arizonans and will cruelly force pregnant people to leave their communities to access abortion,” Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.

Republican attorney general Mark Brnovich, who had urged the judge to lift the injunction so the ban could be enforced, cheered.

“We applaud the court for upholding the will of the Legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue,” Mr Brnovich said in a statement.

“I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans.”

The ruling comes amid an election season in which abortion rights has become a potent issue.

In overturning Roe on June 24, the US Supreme Court said states can regulate abortion as they wish.