Block on abortion pill law extended

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — A federal judge on Monday extended a halt she had imposed on an Arkansas law that critics say would make the state the first in the nation to effectively ban abortion pills.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker granted a preliminary injunction preventing Arkansas from enforcing the law, which says doctors who provide the pills must hold a contract with a physician with admitting privileges at a hospital who agrees to handle any complications.

A 14-day temporary restraining order Baker issued against the law expired less than an hour before the judge’s latest ruling.

Baker’s ruling said the abortion clinics must continue trying to find contracting physicians, but said the state cannot impose any civil or criminal penalties on them for continuing to administer the abortion pills. Baker ruled that the requirement imposes “substantial burdens” on a large fraction of women seeking medication abortions.

“Since the record at this stage of the proceedings indicates that Arkansas women seeking medication abortions face an imminent threat to their constitutional rights, the court concludes that they will suffer irreparable harm without preliminary relief,” Baker wrote.

The U.S. Supreme Court in May rejected Planned Parenthood’s appeal to reinstate Baker’s 2016 preliminary injunction blocking the law. Planned Parenthood said its two facilities and another unaffiliated clinic in Little Rock had stopped offering medication abortions because of the restriction.