Arizona’s top court revives 19th century abortion ban

The state high court ruled the 1864 law could be enforced prospectively. But it stayed implementation of its decision for 14 days to allow the parties to raise any remaining issues at the trial-court level.

Arizona’s top court on Tuesday revived a ban on nearly all abortions under a law from 1864, a half-century before statehood and women’s suffrage, further restricting reproductive rights in a state where terminating a pregnancy was already barred at 15 weeks of gestation.