SW News: Coming as a blow to efforts of pro-life supporters in the US state of Missouri, a federal US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court's injunction on a law passed in the state in 2019 setting up curbs on abortion at various stages of pregnancy.

The court upheld the injunction on the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act as the Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments on the state of Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 months of pregnancy.

Sue Liebel, state policy director for the pro-life Susan B Anthony List, said she was disappointed at the decision.

She said Missouri lawmakers acted on the will of the people when they enacted the law which is deemed to be one of the strongest protections babies and their mothers. When the law was enacted it was challenged in court by Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St Louis region.

The law had set up several tiers of curbs on abortion at various stages of pregnancy such as eight, 14, 18 and 20 weeks. All the tiers were prevented from going into effect by Judge Howard Sachs after ruling that they were unconstitutional.