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Court weighs fate of sweeping Missouri abortion restrictions

(AP) A federal appeals court panel is weighing the fate of a sweeping Missouri abortion law, including a provision that prohibits a woman from having an abortion because the fetus has Down syndrome. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis heard arguments Thursday in the legal battle over the 2019 measure that bans abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy. Most of the court hearing dealt with a provision that bans abortions involving a fetus with Down syndrome. A ruling isn’t expected for several weeks.

Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood, operator of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued. A federal judge blocked the law while the legal challenge plays out, prompting the state’s appeal to the 8th Circuit. U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs said at the time of his ruling last year that Planned Parenthood and the ACLU would likely succeed in their lawsuit alleging that the law is unconstitutional. Similar laws have been struck down in North Dakota and Iowa.

Missouri is among several conservative states in recent years that have passed abortion restrictions in hopes that the increasingly conservative Supreme Court will eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to abortion. The Supreme Court vacancy created by the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has heightened a sense of alarm among supporters of abortion rights.

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