A federal appeals court based in St. Louis has ruled as unconstitutional a two-year-old federal law banning so-called partial-birth abortions. In making its 3-0 decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with an earlier ruling by a district judge in Nebraska that the federal ban should be struck down because it failed to provide an exception for the health of the woman. The Court’s action deals only with the federal law, but it’s expected to impact Missouri’s ban on these abortions. Like the federal law, Missouri’s fails to provide an exception for the woman’s health. An official in the Missouri Attorney General’s office says the ruling will be studied to determine its impact on Missouri’s law.