African-American groups among those opposing NAACP attack on Ariz. sex-, race-based abortion ban

SAN FRANCISCO — Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit urging it to reject the NAACP’s lawsuit against an Arizona bill that prohibits sex- and race-based abortions.

ADF attorneys along with ADF-allied attorney and University of St. Thomas Law Professor Teresa Collett represent bill sponsor Rep. Steve Montenegro, U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, Dr. Alveda King, and multiple African-American and women’s groups who oppose such abortions. Montgomery is also serving as co-counsel.

“Every innocent life deserves to be protected, and that’s especially true of any babies targeted for death simply because of their sex or race,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “Nothing about an abortion committed on the basis of sex or race is medically necessary or constitutionally protected. The fact that groups who supposedly exist to protect the interests of minorities and women are attacking this law is scandalous.”

A district court dismissed the lawsuit in October of last year, but American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the Maricopa County branch of the NAACP and the National Asian-Pacific American Women’s Forum appealed that decision.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation, Susan B. Anthony List, Radiance Foundation, National Black Pro-Life Union, and University Faculty for Life also joined the brief in support of the Arizona bill.

The brief filed in National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Horne reviews the actual debates of the Arizona legislature and argues that “the legislative record reveals troubling statistical disparities in the abortion rates of various racial and ethnic groups, as well as disturbing differences in the sex-ratio of births to women from various communities.”

“Review of the public record establishes that legislators were working proactively to combat emerging, yet well-documented and serious, public health concerns when passing the Act,” the brief continues. “There simply is no ‘stigmatic’ injury here” as the lawsuit against the Arizona law claims.

“Preserving the life of all babies, regardless of their sex or race, should be everyone’s priority,” added ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “We hope the 9th Circuit will not allow this needless attack on Arizona’s law to succeed.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.