Good news: Missouri court finds late-term-abortion ban unconstitutional

Bad news: The law may be one step closer to consideration by SCOTUS.

Published November 30, 2005 8:04PM (EST)

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has -- not unexpectedly -- become "the latest to rule against Missouri's 6-year-old law to ban a mid-to late-term abortion procedure that opponents call 'partial-birth abortion,'" reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The panel "agreed with lower courts that the state law is unconstitutional because it lacks an exception for the mother's health." That's good. But how about "because there's no such thing as 'partial-birth abortion'"?

(The law, by the way, is called the Missouri Infants' Protection Act. So, presumably, it should also ban flammable pajamas and stuffed animals with loose eyeballs.)

The Post-Dispatch continues: "A spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, who defended the state law, said staff members 'are considering our legal options,' which could include an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."

Yikes.


By Lynn Harris

Award-winning journalist Lynn Harris is author of the comic novel "Death by Chick Lit" and co-creator of BreakupGirl.net. She also writes for the New York Times, Glamour, and many others.

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