Court dismisses lawsuit over Arizona's "race- and sex-selective" abortion ban

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging an Arizona law that, while nominally banning abortions based on the sex and race of the fetus, in practice forces doctors to racially profile women seeking abortions.

U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell dismissed the legal challenge on the grounds that the two civil rights groups behind the case, the NAACP and National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, did not have the legal standing to sue. Both groups alleged in the suit that the law stigmatizes the medical decisions made by women of color and is an unconstitutional infringement on a woman's right to abortion.

The Arizona law requires that doctors or nurses who suspect a patient is seeking an abortion because of the sex of her fetus to report her to authorities; doctors who are believed to have performed an abortion for such a reason could be sent to jail. The law, in effect, mandates that medical professionals ask their patients aggressive and invasive questions to find out why they are seeking an abortion, or risk facing criminal charges.

As Salon...