Arizona Lawmakers Back End of Suit Over Ban on Some Abortions

A challenge to Arizona’s law making it a crime to perform an abortion because an embryo or fetus likely has a “genetic abnormality” was properly dismissed, state lawmakers told a federal court.

Changing political winds in Arizona led state Senate President Warren Petersen (R) and Speaker of the House Ben Toma (R) to seek permission to intervene in the case. Attorney General Kris Mayes (D), who inherited the suit from her predecessor, Mark Brnovich, has declined to defend the ban.

Petersen’s and Toma’s motion is still pending, but on Thursday they filed a brief opposing the plaintiffs’ call for the ...