Arizona asks Supreme Court to allow abortion ban for genetic abnormalities to take effect

WASHINGTON – Arizona officials on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to permit its law criminalizing abortions based on genetic conditions to take effect, the latest high profile case to put the issue of reproductive rights before the nation's highest court.

A federal district judge temporarily blocked enforcement of Arizona's law in September and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld that decision last month.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed legislation in April to impose criminal penalties against doctors and others who provide abortions based on genetic abnormalities — making it one of about a dozen states with so-called reason bans.

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"This court has never otherwise recognized the purported right at issue — a right to race-, sex-, or genetic-selective abortions," Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, told the court in the state's appeal. "The right to perform an abortion based solely on the results of genetic testing is novel, with no basis in the Constitution’s text or the nation’s history and traditions."

The Arizona appeal is only the latest to deal with abortion at the Supreme Court. On Friday, a majority of the justices allowed a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy to remain in place. Earlier this month, the court heard arguments in a direct challenge by Mississippi to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

In Roe, a majority of the court established a constitutional right to abortion.

A federal judge in Arizona ruled in September that the state law is vague and imposes an undue burden on the right of people to obtain an abortion.

"Arizona is placing a substantial obstacle in the paths of those women who have freely and intelligently made the decision to terminate their pregnancies because of a fetal genetic abnormality," U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes wrote.

Fewer than 1% of abortions in Arizona each year are due to medical conditions such as cardiac or chromosome abnormalities, like those that cause Down syndrome, or exposure to toxic substances, according to the state's annual reporting. Approximately 110 abortions, of 13,097 in Arizona in 2019, were because of those medical conditions.

Contributing: Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arizona brings abortion ban for genetic abnormalities to Supreme Court