Arizona abortions won’t stop for a month while case proceeds

By BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Legal abortions that restarted in Arizona this week after a court blocked enforcement of a pre-statehood ban will be able to continue for at least five weeks while an appeals court considers the case. A schedule set Tuesday for lawyers from Planned Parenthood and the Arizona attorney general’s office gives them until Nov. 17 to file their legal briefs. That means the Arizona Court of Appeals can’t decide the case at least until then and abortions can continue. The appeals court blocked enforcement of the Civil War-era law on Friday. That reversed a Sept. 23 ruling from a judge in Tucson that says prosecutors can file charges against doctors and nurses who provide abortion care. The old law carries a two- to five-year prison sentence.