Arizona won't appeal order for abortion Catholic News Service Friday, September 3, 1999 PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jane Hull said Aug. 30 that her office would not appeal the Aug. 29 decision of the Arizona Supreme Court affirming an order to send a 14-year-old girl across state lines for a late-term abortion. "I have read that there may be legal efforts under way to go to a federal court. My office is not a part of those efforts,'' Hull said. The case of the girl, a ward of the state whose name has not been revealed for privacy reasons, provoked national controversy after news of it leaked in late August. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge had ordered child welfare officials to take her out of state for an abortion because Arizona law prohibits abortion after viability unless the mother's life or health is in immediate danger. Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien of Phoenix expressed outrage at the decision and offered church resources to help the girl. "I want to express my horror and outrage at the situation reported in the Arizona media in which Judge William Sargeant has ordered Child Protective Services to transport a 14-year-old girl out of the state to undergo an abortion, perhaps even a partial-birth abortion, of her nearly 7-month-old unborn baby,'' Bishop O'Brien said Aug. 25.

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