NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal appeals court has ruled that Tennessee must continue allowing abortions amid a temporary ban on nonessential medical procedures during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ruling follows a U.S. District judge’s order last week that abortions could proceed during the pandemic.
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, issued its opinion Friday. The justices wrote that courts must give governments flexibility to respond to a crisis.
“Affording flexibility, however, is not the same as abdicating responsibility, especially when well-established constitutional rights are at stake, as the right to an abortion most assuredly is,” the court wrote in the 33-page opinion.
Tennessee’s attorney general had argued that abortions are not being singled out but treated like any other procedure that is not necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury. Gov. Bill Lee issued an emergency order April 8 banning nonessential procedures for three weeks.
Alex Rieger, representing the Tennessee attorney general’s office, argued in court last week that the ban was to preserve the limited supply of protective equipment for doctors fighting COVID-19 and to help prevent the community spread of the disease.
Several other states are grappling with similar issues. Judges in the past week have ruled to allow abortions to continue in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Texas.
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