Washington D.C., Aug 5, 2021 / 15:15 pm
A full panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled in favor of Tennessee’s mandatory 48-hour waiting period for abortions.
“Every woman should have the information she needs to make the healthiest choice for everyone involved in a pregnancy,” said Denise Harle, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, which had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of the law.
“Many women resort to abortion because they feel it is their only choice and then regret the decision for years to come,” Harle said. “Tennessee’s law is a commonsense, compassionate, and constitutional statute that protects women, and the 6th Circuit reached the right result in upholding it.”
Tennessee’s mandatory 48-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion went into effect in 2015. In October 2020, however, Judge Bernard Friedman ruled the law was unconstitutional, the first time a federal court had struck down a state waiting period for abortion. In December, Judge Friedman refused the keep the law in place after the state’s attorney general appealed. The state then appealed the case to the circuit court.