[Source: Reuters]

A U.S. appeals court revived a challenge to an Arizona law banning abortions from being performed solely because the fetus has a genetic abnormality.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that a group of healthcare providers can sue the state over the law because they are harmed by it, reversing a lower court ruling.

The panel did not address the merits of the challenge, finding only that the providers are entitled to pursue it in court.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat elected in 2022, declined to defend the 2021 law in court and has said she would not enforce it. It is instead being defended by Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Ben Toma, both Republicans.

The challenged law, signed by Republican then-Governor Doug Doucey, makes it a crime punishable by prison to perform an abortion solely because a fetus is detected to have a genetic abnormality, like Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis, unless the abnormality is fatal. Supporters of such laws describe them as safeguards against eugenics.