The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), a prominent African-American civil-rights organisation in the United States, is seeking to overturn an Arizona law that prohibits abortion on the grounds of the race of the unborn child.

According to LifeNews, the NAACP’s lawsuit against the Arizona law – which bans all sex- and race-based abortions – was dismissed by a district court last October, but the NAACP, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are appealing the decision. In a press release, the ACLU said that the law “contains criminal penalties, requires every physician providing abortion care to certify that the reason the woman is seeking that care has nothing to do with the race or sex of the embryo or fetus” and “relies on harmful racial stereotypes to shame and discriminate against (women from racial minorities) who decide to end their pregnancies.”

Attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit urging it to reject the NAACP’s lawsuit.

“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.”

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, as did Dr Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr and a prominent pro-life campaigner.