Judge nixes Seaford town mandate to bury or cremate fetal remains

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has struck down a small town ordinance mandating burial or cremation of fetal remains.

Wednesday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings against the town of Seaford. The town council passed the ordinance in December after Planned Parenthood opened a facility in Seaford, its first clinic in southern Delaware since a Rehoboth Beach location closed in 2011. The judge said state law regarding the disposal of humans remains supersedes the local ordinance. Under state law, fetal remains from an abortion are not considered a “dead body” and must be incinerated as “pathological waste.

Laster noted the case didn’t involve any federal constitutional rights or any Delaware law regarding abortion.

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