Limits on abortion blocked in Arkansas
A U.S. judge prevents the enforcement of four new restrictions. The state will appeal.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal judge has blocked Arkansas from enforcing four new abortion restrictions, including a ban on a common second-trimester procedure and a fetal remains law that opponents say would essentially require a partner’s consent before a woman could get an abortion.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction late Friday against the new restrictions, three of which were set to take effect Tuesday. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights had challenged the measures, suing on behalf of Dr. Frederick Hopkins, a Little Rock abortion provider.
The laws include a ban on a procedure known as dilation and evacuation. Abortion rights supporters contend that it’s the safest and most common procedure used in second-trimester abortions, but the state calls it barbaric and “dismemberment abortion,” saying it can have emotional consequences for the women who undergo it.
Similar bans are in effect in Mississippi and West Virginia and have been blocked by rulings in Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
The groups that brought the suit in the Arkansas case said the ban would have a devastating impact.
“The threatened harm to Dr. Hopkins and the fraction of women for whom the Mandate is relevant clearly outweighs whatever damage or harm a proposed injunction may cause the State of Arkansas,” Baker wrote in her ruling.
“Arkansas women can feel a little relief today, knowing that these laws are blocked from taking effect,” Rita Sklar, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, said in a statement. “Instead of protecting women’s health, Arkansas politicians have passed laws that defy decency and reason just to make it difficult or impossible for a woman to get an abortion.”
Judd Deere, a spokesman for state Atty. Gen. Leslie Rutledge, said in a text message that Rutledge disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal.
Baker’s ruling also halts a law that would impose restrictions on the disposal of fetal tissue from abortions.
The plaintiffs argued that it could also block access by requiring notification of a third party, such as the woman’s sexual partner or her parents, to determine what happens to the fetal remains.
The state has said the law doesn’t require permission or notice from those third parties before an abortion and includes several provisions that ensure notice or consent isn’t required to dispose of the fetal remains.
Baker said the disposal law’s requirements would dissuade doctors from performing abortions and create delays for women seeking the procedure.
“For these reasons, the Court is not convinced that importing the [law’s] complex requirements for authorization advances a public health goal,” Baker wrote.
Baker also blocked part of a law set to take effect in January that would ban abortions based solely on the fetus’ sex. The groups are challenging the law’s requirement that a doctor performing the abortion first request records related to the entire pregnancy history of the woman.
“It will cause women to forgo abortion in Arkansas rather than risk disclosure to medical providers who they know oppose abortion or who are family friends or neighbors,” Baker wrote.
The ruling came hours after a federal appeals court, lifting a previous Baker order, cleared the way for Arkansas to enforce a law that will limit how the abortion pill can be administered.