Attorney General Mark Pryor said that he will not appeal the federal appeals court ruling in September that struck down Arkansas’ ban on late-term abortion. Pryor explained in a letter to Arkansas Right to Life Executive Director Rose Mimms that the appeal would be costly and would likely fail.
In September, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that laws in Arkansas, Nebraska, and Iowa banning late term abortions are unconstitutional. The court, upholding U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf’s decision from last year, said that the laws in these three states are so vague that they could potentially outlaw all abortions. Chief Judge Richard Arnold wrote regarding the Nebraska law that “Such a prohibition places an undue burden on the right of women to choose whether to have an abortion.”
Pryor said he would “wait for the (U.S.) Supreme Court to rule on similar cases in Nebraska and Wisconsin” before taking any further action on the issue.
