Judge blocks new pro-life laws in Arkansas

U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction late Friday night, blocking the state of Arkansas from enforcing four new pro-life measures, three of which were scheduled to go into effect Tuesday. The laws include a ban on dilation and evacuation procedures, which dismembers babies in the womb; new restrictions on the disposal of the remains of aborted babies, including notification of the mother’s sexual partner or parents; the raising of the age requirement of a minor mother from under 14 to under 17 for abortionists to preserve the remains of an aborted baby and notify police; and a ban, scheduled for January, on abortions based solely on the baby’s sex. Judd Deere, a spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, told the Associated Press in a text message that Rutledge plans to appeal the judge’s ruling. Baker’s ruling came only hours after a federal appeals court panel lifted the judge’s previous order blocking a 2015 law requiring abortionists who provide abortion pills to maintain a contract with a doctor who has admitting privileges at a hospital and agrees to handle any complications resulting from the pill’s aftereffects.