ON HOLD

Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Bill That Would Ban Nearly All Abortions

The bill was constructed as a challenge to Roe v. Wade but a judge deemed it “categorically unconstitutional.”

A federal judge has blocked an Arkansas law that would have banned almost all abortions in the state. The law would have allowed abortions only when the woman’s life is in danger, and provides no exceptions for rape or incest. Violators would face a $100,000 penalty and up to 10 years in prison. Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed the bill, which would’ve taken effect on July 28, in the hope that it would trigger a legal battle to reverse the decades-old Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. “That was the whole design of the law,” Hutchinson told CNN. But abortion rights groups filed a legal challenge, and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction, calling the law “categorically unconstitutional.”