FRANKFORT, Ky. — Attorney General Daniel Cameron joined Louisiana's Jeff Landry and a coalition of 21 states on Wednesday, signing an amicus brief in support of Tennessee’s law requiring a 48-hour waiting period before an abortion.

Last month, a divided panel in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined to lift an injunction against Tennessee’s waiting period law. Judge Amul Thapar dissented from that decision and called on the full court to immediately review the decision. Tennessee requested that the full court review the decision, and the coalition’s amicus brief supports that request.

“More than half of the states in the country have waiting periods before an abortion, and the Sixth Circuit’s decision has the potential to throw these laws into disarray,” Cameron said in a statement. “We cannot let that happen, and we co-led this brief to support Tennessee and also to protect the Commonwealth’s laws.”

The coalition argues that the Sixth Circuit’s decision casts doubt on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June Medical Services v. Russo, which is used to review the legality of abortion laws throughout the country. The Sixth Circuit applied this same rule last year in a decision to uphold Kentucky’s transfer agreement law, requiring that abortion clinics have a transfer agreement in place with a local hospital and ambulance provider.

The brief states that the Sixth Circuit ignored this important precedent when applying the rule to Tennessee’s law.

It also argues that both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit have upheld similar laws against constitutional challenges, and the precedent will be jeopardized if the full court does not reconsider this decision. 

Attorney General Cameron co-led the brief with Louisiana and is joined in signing it by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.