A hearing is scheduled in a federal lawsuit challenging a new Arkansas law that bans most abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
Friday's hearing is expected to focus on a request to temporarily block enforcement of the ban that is set to take effect in August.
The hearing comes in a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Center for Reproductive Rights brought on behalf of two Little Rock abortion providers.
Arkansas' Republican-led Legislature enacted the 12-week ban in March when it overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe.
Beebe and other opponents of the ban say it violates the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion until a fetus could viably survive outside the womb.