A federal judge has granted a request to temporarily block enforcement of a new Arkansas law that bans most abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright granted a motion Friday for a preliminary injunction against the ban, set to take effect in August.
The state's Republican-led Legislature enacted the ban in March by overriding a veto from Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe.
Wright's decision is part of 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.
Those groups and other opponents of the 12-week ban say it violates the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion until a fetus could viably survive outside the womb.
