Appeals court blocks Tennessee Down syndrome abortion ban

A panel of federal judges reversed course Friday and blocked a Tennessee restriction that outlaws abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, or because of the race or gender of the fetus. The ruling also kept a six-week abortion ban blocked.

In its multipronged decision, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati affirmed previous rulings that have blocked the state’s six-week abortion ban. The law states that if the six-week ban is deemed unconstitutional — a time frame when most people don’t know they’re pregnant — then the ban would begin at various other gestational stages. "We take note that state legislatures recently have passed more anti-abortion regulations than perhaps at any other time in this country’s history. However, this development is not a signal to the courts to change course," Senior Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote for the majority. "It is, in fact, just the opposite. The judiciary exists as a check on majoritarian rule."