{"id":238373,"date":"2021-01-20T15:35:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=238373"},"modified":"2021-01-20T17:46:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T23:46:16","slug":"appeals-judges-supreme-court-ban-abortion-viability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/appeals-judges-supreme-court-ban-abortion-viability\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court judges urge Supreme Court to let states ban abortions before viability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two judges on the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals are urging the Supreme Court to overturn their court’s ruling and open the door to allowing states to enact bans on abortion before the fluid and arbitrary point of “viability.”<\/p>\n

In the January 5, 2021,\u00a0opinion<\/a> in the case of Little Rock Family Planning v. Rutledge<\/em>, Judge Ralph Erickson and Judge Bobby Shepherd lamented the fact that Supreme Court precedent forced them to block pro-life laws in Arkansas. Those laws include a ban on abortion after 18 weeks and a ban on abortion due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Erickson and the rest of the panel of appeals judges upheld the ruling of a U.S. District Court which had struck down the pro-life laws.<\/p>\n

Erickson wrote in his opinion that the Supreme Court should “revisit its precedent in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey<\/em>,” a 1992 case that affirmed that under Roe v. Wade<\/em> women have a so-called right to abortion prior to fetal viability but changed the terms to create a flexible definition not based on the three trimesters of pregnancy. Under this ruling, states are unable to effectively ban abortion before viability, which has long been held to be 24 weeks \u2014 though children born as young as 21 weeks<\/a> have survived.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Coercive population control and eugenics are still alive and well today<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Erickson is concerned that the inability of states to ban abortions prior to viability will lead to the creation of a “master race” due to the the fact that early prenatal testing is now leading to earlier abortions for eugenic purposes. In addition, many children are killed by abortion after<\/em> viability due to a prenatal diagnosis \u2014 one of many loophole exceptions often placed in pro-life legislation.<\/p>\n