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US officials fight over enforcement of abortion laws dating back to the 1800s

In Arizona, Republicans are fighting over whether an anti-abortion law is 121 years old from the pre-state Wild West days, when Arizona was still a mining territory. currency, should be implemented in the 2022 version.

Meanwhile, in Idaho, it’s not clear whether a pair of laws from the early 1970s that consider “intentionally aiding” abortion or disclosing information on how to cause it would be enforced alongside the newer law, almost completely or not. ban.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade has left advocates, prosecutors and residents in several states facing a legal trouble created by decades of anti-corruption discipline. Abortion is often contradictory.

State government politicians and lawyers are trying to figure out which laws and provisions are in effect. And abortion rights advocates who will go to court to defend the right to terminate a pregnancy are faced with many facets.

Jill Gibson, medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, speaks to her staff on Thursday, June 30, 2022 at the Planned Parenthood facility in Tempe, Ariz.
Jill Gibson, medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, speaks to her staff Thursday in Tempe, Ariz. The organization stopped performing abortions immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court decision because they were concerned about pre-state laws that made it a crime to perform or support abortions. (Matt York / The Associated Press)

Wasden spokesman Scott Graf said attorneys at the office of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden are reviewing all of the state’s abortion regulations with a wide-tooth comb.

“Following last week’s decision, part of our next work will be to review Idaho’s current abortion-related laws and examine them through a post-Roe legal lens,” Graf said. “That work has already begun and will continue in the coming weeks.”

In West Virginia, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the abortion ban that was put into the books in 1882. The organization says the law conflicts with newer laws and therefore will not effective.

“We will not stand idly by while this state is dragged back to the 1800s,” the organization’s chief legal officer, Loree Stark, said in a statement. “Every day that uncertainty remains about the enforceability of this statute is another day that West Virginians are denied vital, life-saving health care.”

SEE: ‘Chaos’ as abortion providers try to figure out what’s legal:

Challenges to ‘enable the law’ add to the confusion of access to abortion in the US

After the Roe v. Wade case was debunked, Americans searching for information on what was legal in their state were met with confusion as advocates railed against ‘trigger laws’ on abortion.

In Wisconsin, Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the 173-year-old abortion ban, arguing that modern generations never agreed to it. The 1849 law forbade abortion in all but saving the life of the pregnant woman – contradicting a law from the mid-1980s that banned the procedure after the fetus had reached the point where it could survive outside the uterus with intervention. medical card.

Arizona GOP officials disagree on which abortion laws are enforceable. Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Wednesday that the pre-state abortion ban is now in effect, but Republican Governor Doug Ducey said the law he signed in March takes precedence over the order. banned in 1901.

When the Idaho legislature passed a “trigger law” in 2020 that would automatically ban nearly all abortions 30 days after Roe’s fall, lawmakers took several steps to avoid conflict conflict by making it clear that the law will supersede other prohibitions. Lawmakers included similar language in another ban passed earlier this year.

Protesters march around the Arizona Capitol following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case on Friday, June 24, 2022, in Phoenix.
Protesters march around the Arizona Capitol after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade was delivered, on June 24, 2022, in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin / The Associated Press)

But they may have omitted a few provisions from decades-old statutes.

The 2020 Activation Law specifically says that people seeking abortions cannot be charged, instead focusing prosecution efforts on the abortion provider. That would likely replace the 1973 law that made an abortion a felony, but it’s unclear if another part of the old law that made the crime of knowingly aiding an abortion would still be enforceable.

Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs talks about nearly three dozen anti-abortion laws in books in Idaho.

It gives abortion rights advocates a lot to juggle.

Planned Parenthood is suing both of Idaho’s newer laws. They have asked the Idaho Supreme Court to hear arguments in both cases on the same day in early August in the hope of getting a ruling before the trigger law goes into effect.

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