[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday upheld [opinion text, PDF] a lower court decision striking down a Missouri law restricting late-term abortions. The Infant Protection Act [statute text] was passed in July 2004 and made it unlawful for any person to "cause the death of a living infant with the purpose to cause death by an overt act performed when the infant is partially born or born". The law restricted most abortions performed during and after the second trimester. The court agreed that the law posed a undue burden to a woman's constitutional right to abortion because the measure lacked an exception for procedures performed to save the health of the mother. AP has more.