{"id":243339,"date":"2021-04-14T17:44:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T22:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=243339"},"modified":"2021-04-13T23:34:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T04:34:37","slug":"appeals-court-ohio-down-syndrome-abortion-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/appeals-court-ohio-down-syndrome-abortion-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court rules in favor of Ohio’s Down syndrome abortion ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal appeals court ruled<\/a> on Tuesday that Ohio can enforce its ban on discriminatory abortions due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.<\/p>\n

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was divided<\/a> on the issue but ultimately sided 9 to 7 in favor of the 2017 law that imposes criminal penalties on abortionists who commit abortions with the knowledge that the abortion is being carried out due to a diagnosis of Down syndrome or the possibility of such a diagnosis. Anyone who does so could be charged with a fourth-degree felony. The court determined that the law did not create a substantial obstacle to a woman’s ability to get an abortion, despite the arguments of groups that sued to block the law.<\/p>\n

Four abortion businesses sued Ohio over the law: Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Women’s Med, and Preterm-Cleveland \u2014\u00a0an abortion facility responsible\u00a0for the deaths of<\/a> at least two women that has injured many others. That lawsuit led a federal judge to block the law in 2018, and in 2019, a panel of the Sixth Circuit ruled two to one to block the law, but this latest ruling reverses the Sixth Circuit’s decision.<\/p>\n