LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal judge has blocked an Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions from taking effect this month.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction preventing the law’s enforcement while she considers a challenge to its constitutionality.
The measure passed by the majority-Republican Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson was set to take effect July 28.
The ban allows the procedure to save the life of the mother and does not provide exceptions for those impregnated in an act of rape or incest.
The law contradicts the long-standing Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
"That was the whole design of the law. It is not constitutional under Supreme Court cases right now," Hutchinson told CNN in March after signing the bill. "I signed it because it is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade."
