Federal judge blocks Mississippi heartbeat law

A federal judge issued an order Friday temporarily blocking a Mississippi law that would protect unborn babies from abortion once they have a detectable heartbeat, usually at about six weeks of gestation. Opponents of the measure argued in court this week that the law would effectively stop abortion in Mississippi because many women don’t know they are pregnant until after they have passed the six-week threshold.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, an appointee of President Barack Obama, struck down a similar law in Mississippi that would have protected babies from abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. In court Tuesday, Reeves said that the heartbeat law “smacks of defiance to this court,” The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., reported.