Critics of Arizona's new abortion laws -- which were set to go into effect tomorrow -- have been fighting to get them overturned.

       A state judge allowed a 24 hour waiting period to stand but put several provisions on hold pending further hearings.

        Items on hold include:

        A requirement that doctors must tell patients about the risks and alternatives

        The judge also put on hold part of the law that banned nurse-practitioners from doing abortions.

        No ruling on another part of the law which allows health-care professionals and pharmacy workers the choice to refuse to assist with an abortion...or refuse to provide emergency contraception.

        The abortion law creates a potential collision among the law, professional ethics, and personal ethics.

        State lawmakers passed a law that says before a woman may get an abortion her doctor's office must give her a description of the medical risk, alternatives to abortion, how the fetus looks though it still in the womb, and child care assistance that may be available if she has her baby---then she must return 24 hours later if she still wants to end her pregnancy.

       Caregivers may also refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds....but the law says nothing about whether a caregiver can still refuse to do the procedure if an abortion is needed to save the mother's life.

       Attorney Barry Davis thinks a doctor can refuse an elective abortion, but not an emergency one.

        "I believe the physician who is faced with a medical emergency that requires the procedure of abortion would face great risk if he did not take care of his patient.  Craig Smith asks: Risk of malpractice? A: I think it's risk of medical negligence and I think it would be risk of jeopardizing his license because that's what he swore to do when he rose his right hand and took the Hippocratic oath."

      The law also gives pharmacists the ability to opt out of giving the morning after pill on ethic grounds.  It's not regarded as an abortion pill but does prevent a pregnancy from taking hold in a mother's womb.

       U of A pharmacy professor Tim Tong tells us ethics allow a pharmacist to refuse to dispense a morning after pill, but the woman must still be able to get it.

        "I would say, but there are places where you can get this Plan B filled, or my pharmacist colleague standing right next to me will take your prescription and fill it."

        There may be cases where it's hard for a pharmacist to balance an ethical objection against the professional ethic that says the patient should be able to get a legal medication somewhere.

        That may come up in a small town where there's only one pharmacy. 

        Doctor Tong suggests that pharmacist should make it well known in the community patients will have to seek day-after contraception out of town.