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Calling the measure racist, a coalition of rights groups filed suit Wednesday to overturn a two-year-old law banning abortion for race or gender selection.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the NAACP as well as the National Asian Pacific Women's Forum, asks U.S. District Court Judge Paul Rosenblatt to declare the law is an unconstitutional infringement on the right of minority women to terminate their pregnancy without being questioned about the reason why. It also seeks an order to bar both the Attorney General's Office and the Arizona Medical Board from enforcing any part of the law.

Challengers said that the 2011 law -- which they say is unique in the entire country -- was approved based on claims by Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, that the rates of abortions for black women were higher than for other groups.

Montenegro also cited evidence, much of it from Asian countries, that women there were far more likely to abort a female child than a male. That got extrapolated to questions about the practices of Asian...