Appeals court upholds hold on Arkansas abortion laws

LITTLE ROCK, Ark — A federal appeals court on Tuesday kept on hold an Arkansas law banning abortions 18 weeks into a woman's pregnancy and another banning the procedure from being performed because the fetus has Down syndrome.

The 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal judge's 2019 ruling temporarily blocking Arkansas from enforcing the measures.

"As the district court recognized, the law governing the constitutionality of two of the three statutes at issue — Act 493 and Act 619 — though obviously subject to change in the future, is well established in this Circuit today," the three-judge panel said in Tuesday's ruling.

U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker in 2019 ruled that both measures unconstitutionally restrict abortion before a fetus is viable, or able to survive outside the womb.

Read more: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2021/jan/06/appeals-court-upholds-hold-arkansas-abortion-laws/855252/