The 6th U.S. Circuit Court upheld a 2015 Tennessee law requiring a 48-hour health screening period before the performance of abortions, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Every woman should have the information she needs to make the healthiest choice for everyone involved in a pregnancy,” said ADF Senior Counsel Denise Harle said in a press release.
The law was challenged by pro-abortion activists seeking to promote easy, state-sponsored access to such procedures immediately upon demand.
But Harle said the Tennessee law gives women a chance to reconsider before choosing to get an abortion.
“Many women resort to abortion because they feel it is their only choice and then regret the decision for years to come,” she added.
Democrats have insisted for years that the Constitution grants the federal government unrestricted authority to force the hand of the states in respect to abortion.
Harle and the 6th Circuit rejected such a proposition.
“As the 6th Circuit held, the Supreme Court has already recognized that state governments have the constitutional authority to provide women contemplating abortions the opportunity to receive crucially important information before such a life-changing procedure is performed,” Harle wrote.
“Tennessee’s law is a commonsense, compassionate, and constitutional statute that protects women, and the 6th Circuit reached the right result in upholding it,” she added.
Fortunately for the pro-life movement across the country, the 6th Circuit agreed with Harle’s constitutional reasoning.
“Tennessee’s 48-hour abortion waiting period is facially constitutional,” the court wrote in its decision.
“The law is supported by a rational basis, and it is not a substantial obstacle to abortion for a large fraction of women seeking… abortions in Tennessee,” it said. “… We thus reverse the district court’s decision and remand for entry of judgment in Tennessee’s favor on these claims.”
