Arizona Supreme Court upholds Civil War-era near-total abortion ban [Video]

A near-total abortion ban, part of a 158-year-old law, is enforceable in Arizona, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 4-2 bombshell decision, the state’s supreme court on Tuesday upheld a Civil War-era law that criminalises abortions, and those who help a woman obtain one, only with exceptions to save a woman’s life. The law makes it a felony punishable by two to five years in prison.

The state’s supreme court had been mulling over whether to resurrect the law, which was enacted 50 years before Arizona gained statehood or follow a 2022 law that bans abortions only after 15 weeks unless medically necessary to save a woman’s life.

The ban will go into effect in 14 days.

Anti-abortion advocates argued that language in the two laws conflicted and the state should follow …