Lawsuit seeks to block Arizona ban on Down syndrome abortion

PHOENIX (AP) — Abortion-rights advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a new Arizona law that would ban abortions because of Down syndrome or other genetic abnormalities, the latest legal fight over reproductive rights under a judiciary that moved to the right during Donald Trump's presidency.

The lawsuit also challenges a “personhood” provision that confers all the rights of people on fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses. The law is set to take effect Sept. 29 if it's not blocked by a judge.

“You have a constitutional right to an abortion, and that right does not take into account your reason for having an abortion,” said Emily Nestler, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Politicians should not get to interrogate people’s reasons for seeking an abortion.”

Emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s turn to the right during Trump’s term, Republican-controlled legislatures around the country have embraced efforts to further restrict or outright ban abortion. States enacted more than 90 new restrictions on abortion this year, the most in decades, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

The high court in May signaled its willingness to reconsider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion before a fetus could survive outside a mother’s womb, generally around 24 weeks. The justices agreed to consider a Mississippi law that seeks to ban abortions after 15 weeks.

The Arizona lawsuit challenges key provisions of SB1457, which was signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in April after it passed the GOP-controlled Legislature in party-line votes.

The measure allows prosecutors to seek felony charges against doctors who provide abortions when they know it’s solely because of a genetic...