En banc with the Sixth Circuit

NARAL's The Morning After is a production of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

This week, Gabe and Jaime traveled to the US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. The Down syndrome abortion ban signed into law by former Gov. John Kasich was immediately blocked by federal courts. The appeal by Gov. Mike DeWine's Department of Health challenging the stoppage called for an en banc review, which means the case was heard by all SIXTEEN judges of the appeals court at one time, instead of the usual three judge panel. 

The state's argument was presented by attorney Ben Flowers and joined by an addition from the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division attorney, Alexander Maugeri.

The plaintiff, Preterm, was represented by attorney and Case professor, Jessie Hill.

The state of Ohio is arguing many positions, first being that this abortion ban somehow isn't an abortion ban. They feel that it applies to doctors and not women, so the women aren't impacted. (We note that the entire trial, and our discussion of it, was entirely using gendered language. This isn't a principal shared by NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, but it's not our court.)

A second position of the state, and several male judges on the court, is that women won't be impacted by this ban because they can just dodge it by not informing their doctor why they are seeking an abortion. Prof. Hill pointed out that asking patients to hide information from doctors is not sound health care policy.

Full hearing audio is available at: https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/internet/court_audio/aud1.php (Look for March 11, 2020 - 18-3329 Preterm-Cleveland v Amy Acton et al.)

**********

Listen to NARAL's The Morning After on these podcast apps:

Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/naralpodcast
Spotify: bit.ly/naralspotify
Stitcher: bit.ly/naralstitcher
Podbean: bit.ly/naralpodbean