![Abortion-rights activists stand in protest on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, in the Ohio Senate chamber in Columbus, after passage of the bill banning abortions in cases of a Down syndrome diagnosis. After years of court battles, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold the law this week. [Julie Carr Smyth / AP file photo]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d8547d6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x735+0+0/resize/840x630!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fimages%2Fnews%2Fnpr%2F2021%2F04%2FAP17347729820695.jpg)
A federal court has upheld an Ohio law prohibiting doctors from performing abortions based on a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
The ruling Tuesday by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overturned lower court rulings in a 2018 case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), the state medical board and county prosecutors on behalf of Planned Parenthood and several abortion providers.
Lower courts ruled the ACLU's argument that the law infringes on a woman’s constitutional right to make “the ultimate decision” about an abortion would likely succeed. A divided 6th Circuit disagreed.
In the 9-7 decision, the full appellate court said the law did not create a substantial obstacle to abortion, was reasonably related to Ohio’s legitimate interests and was “valid in all conceivable cases.”
When the law was passed in 2017, Ohio become the third state in the country to ban abortion after a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
In January, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a pair of Arkansas abortion laws, one of which would have banned the procedure if based on a Down syndrome diagnosis. The split between courts could open the question – and broader challenges to abortion rights – for U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny.
The Tuesday decision marks the third time this month courts have ruled on Ohio’s abortions laws. On April 7, Hamilton County judge temporarily blocked an Ohio law that would prevent using telemedicine to write prescriptions for medical abortions and days before that, enforcement of a new law requiring cremation or burial of fetal tissue was put on hold until ODH clarifies related rules for abortion clinics to follow.
ideastream Digital Editor Gayle S. Putrich contributed to this report.
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