A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld Tennessee’s 48-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, arguing that opponents had failed to identify instances where a woman had been significantly burdened by the requirement.

The decision comes after a lower federal court last year struck down the 2015 law that requires those seeking an abortion to make two trips to a clinic — first for mandatory counseling and then for the abortion at least 48 hours later.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Bernard Freidman said the two-visit requirement posed logistical challenges for patients and clinics that could cause abortions to be delayed.

However, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and instead sided with the state’s attorneys, who argued that the law could be struck down only if it prevented a large percentage of women from obtaining abortions altogether.

“None of the plaintiffs’ witnesses could name specific women who could not get an abortion because the waiting period pushed them past the cutoff date,” the justices wrote. “None of the witnesses could identify specific women whose medical conditions caused complications or psychological harm during the waiting period.”

The justices also pointed out that the law had been in effect for five years and abortions had not taken a dive as some had warned.

“It is one thing to predict that the sky will fall tomorrow,” the ruling states. “It’s quite another thing to maintain that the sky fell five years ago for women seeking abortions when the numbers tell us otherwise.” FULL STORY HERE