Appeals court upholds pro-life Tennessee law

Abortion supporters failed to prove that waiting 48 hours for an abortion creates an undue burden on women, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Tennessee adopted the waiting period requirement in 2015 after voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to allow the legislature more authority to regulate abortion. A lower court judge struck down the law last year.

What was the court’s reasoning? “None of the plaintiffs’ witnesses could name specific women who could not get an abortion because the waiting period pushed them past the cutoff date,” judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. “None of the witnesses could identify specific women whose medical conditions caused complications or psychological harm during the waiting period.” They also pointed out that the law had been in effect from 2015 to 2020, and abortions had not taken a dive as some had warned.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Courtney Crandell’s report about the passage of the Tennessee waiting period law.