Reproductive rights advocates won a small victory Monday. Without explanation, which is its standard approach, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Arizona's effort to reinstate a law that prohibited most abortions 20 weeks after a woman's last menstrual period:
The case concerned an Arizona law, enacted in 2012, that prohibits abortions, except in medical emergencies, when the gestational age of the fetus is more than 20 weeks. The law’s definition of medical emergency is narrow, encompassing conditions requiring immediate abortion to avert a pregnant woman’s death or a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
The law’s sponsors claimed that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks, a contention that has been disputed by major medical groups.
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