Court Throws Out Anti-Abortion Laws

A federal appeals court in St. Paul, Minn., declared as unconstitutional laws barring late-term abortions in Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a federal judge in Lincoln, Neb., that said Nebraska’s law had the potential for barring all abortions. The ruling encompassed similar anti-abortion statutes in Iowa and Arkansas. Of Nebraska’s 1997 law, Judge Richard Arnold said it would place “an undue burden” on abortion rights. Arnold said the state law could prohibit even the most common method of second-trimester abortion.