Tennessee laws criminalizing abortions performed at previability gestational ages or solely because of the fetus’ race, sex, or prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome won’t take effect before there is a decision on their constitutionality, a split Sixth Circuit said Friday.
The state’s “heartbeat” law operates in a cascading fashion. It prohibits abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected at about six weeks’ gestation and—if that section is found invalid—at successive gestational ages ranging from 8 to 24 weeks, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit explained in an opinion by Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey.
It would effectively completely ...