The Women’s Health and Safety Act bans abortions after 20 weeks in Arizona. But before the law could go into affect, abortion advocates filed a suit alleging the ban on late-term abortions would put women’s “lives and health at grave risk.”
Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to uphold Arizona’s law.
“In keeping with medical advances, history and common sense, the Arizona Legislature has said that a 20-week-old unborn child is a human being, not merely a ‘potential human being,’ whose rights must be balanced with the mother’s rights when deciding whether an abortion can be performed,” Liberty Counsel told the court.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, says women suffer and pre-born babies die with every abortion—and late-term abortions pose even greater risks to the mother.
“This law takes into account the rights of the unborn child and the safety of the mother. Arizona is the first state to enact a late-term ban based on concerns for the mother’s health. The very groups that are charged with defending and protecting women’s health are paradoxically the ones responsible for trying to block this law aimed at protecting women,” Staver says.
“The debate as to when life begins was settled a long time ago within the medical and scientific world. The debate today is no longer when life begins.”
