Judge clears Arizona to enforce near-total ban on abortion

Protesters gather outside the Capitol to voice their dissent with an abortion ruling in Phoenix, Arizona (Matt York/PA)

The US state of Arizona can enforce a near-total ban on abortions that has been blocked for nearly 50 years, a judge ruled on Friday, meaning clinics statewide will have to stop providing the procedures to avoid the filing of criminal charges against doctors and other medical workers.

The judge lifted a decades-old injunction that blocked enforcement of the law on the books since before Arizona became a state.