A federal judge has placed a temporary block on North Dakota's new abortion law that bans procedures to end pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks.
The law, the most restrictive in the country, was set to go into effect Aug. 1. However, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland granted a preliminary injunction blocking it in response to a lawsuit filed by Red River Women's Clinic, the only abortion clinic in the state.
The clinic claimed that banning abortions that early, before many women even knew they are pregnant, would prevent 90 percent of the abortions it performs. In addition, the clinic argued that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and the 40-year precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which grants women the right to have an abortion up until 28 weeks into pregnancy.
"The court finds the plaintiffs have established that they and their patients will be subjected to the threat of irreparable injury in the absence of a preliminary injunction," the judge wrote in his ruling, according to Reuters.
"The State of North Dakota has presented no evidence to justify the passage of this troubling law," Hovland said in his order, reports NBC News. "The State has extended an invitation to an expensive court battle over a law restricting abortions that is a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all women."
A dozen states with Republican-led legislatures have approved bans on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but none have approved restrictions as strong as the ones enacted by North Dakota and Arkansas. In March, Arkansas banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. A federal judge blocked the law in May, at least temporarily.
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