The Justice Department late Tuesday filed a brief saying Ohio’s restriction on abortions of fetuses with Down syndrome is necessary to ensure “equal dignity of those who live with disabilities.”
“[T]he law does not prohibit any abortions,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband wrote in a friend-of-the-court brief. “Instead, it merely forbids providers to participate in abortions they know are sought on the basis of Down syndrome.”
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit is reviewing a lower court decision that found Ohio’s 2017 law unconstitutional.
A three-judge appellate panel upheld the lower court ruling in October.
In 2017, then-Gov. John Kasich signed the measure into law. It prohibits a woman from terminating her pregnancy because of a “prenatal diagnosis” of Down syndrome.
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