Federal Judge Douglas L. Rayes threw out a key provision of Arizona’s abortion ban on Tuesday that would have allowed prosecutors to bring charges against health providers for terminating pregnancies due to a diagnosis of genetic abnormality, except in a medical emergency. Rayes also granted a partial preliminary injunction against a provision that would have let prosecutors bring charges against anyone who was fundraising or paying for the abortion. “The Reason Regulations do not ban women from terminating pre-viability pregnancies because of a fetal genetic abnormality; they prohibit providers from performing such abortions if they know the patient’s motive,” Rayes wrote in the court order (pdf). Rayes concluded that the new law will bring harm to the doctor–patient relationship if a woman wishes to terminate her pregnancy due to a fetal genetic abnormality, but conceals this information from her doctor instead. Rayes issued the ruling eight hours before the new abortion laws were …