Texas, Louisiana Back Mississippi’s Plea for Abortion Case Redo

A federal appeals court’s “artificial distinction” between regulations and bans led it to incorrectly uphold a decision that invalidated a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks, Texas and Louisiana told a federal appeals court.

The states are urging the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to rehear a challenge to Mississippi’s gestational age limit, which a lower court held unconstitutional.

A Fifth Circuit panel wrongly held that restrictions on previability abortions “are unconstitutional regardless of the State’s interests,” Texas and Louisiana said in their friend of the court brief Jan. 3.

Instead, the court should have ...