By AP/KWMU
St. Louis – Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon wants a federal appeals court to keep an abortion case under its control, instead of sending it back to a district judge.
The jurisdictional dispute centers on a new Missouri law requiring physicians to wait 24 hours after consulting women before performing abortions.
The law took affect late last month, after a panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a temporary retraining order that had been in place since October.
After losing, Planned Parenthood asked the court to dismiss Nixon's appeal as moot and send the case back to the district judge.
If that happens, Planned Parenthood could again request an injunction against the law.
But Nixon says sending the case back to the district court would only result in another appeal.