Arkansas Judge Issues Injunction Blocking Laws That Limit Abortions | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    The author of this post is Hank Berrien.

    On Tuesday, only hours before laws requiring abortion restrictions were to be implemented, a federal judge in Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction that blocked them.

    The laws included one that banned abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother, a second that would ban abortions that were sought only because the unborn baby had Down syndrome, and a third that would require abortion doctors to be board-certified or board-eligible in obstetrics and gynecology, according to The Wall Street Journal. The latter law would trigger the closing of Arkansas' last surgical abortion clinic.

    The bill requiring abortion doctors to be board-certified, SB 448, states, "A person shall not perform or induce an abortion unless that person is a physician licensed to practice medicine in the state of Arkansas and is board-certified or board-eligible in obstetrics and gynecology. A violation of this section is a Class D felony and may result in the revocation, suspension, or nonrenewal of the professional license of an abortion facility or physician."

    The bill banning abortions after 18 weeks made clear how it saw the unborn baby:

• Medical and other authorities now know more about human prenatal development than ever before, including without limitation: Between five and six weeks' gestation, an unborn human being's heart begins to beat; an unborn human being begins to move about in the womb at approximately eight weeks' gestation; at nine weeks' gestation, all basic physiological functions, buds for teeth, eyes, and external genitalia are present; an unborn human being's vital organs begin to function at ten weeks' gestation.
• Hair, fingernails, and toenails begin to form at ten weeks' gestation; at eleven weeks' gestation, an unborn human being's diaphragm develops, which can result in hiccups. In addition, an unborn human being begins to move about freely in the womb; and at twelve weeks' gestation, an unborn human being can open and close his or her fingers, make sucking motions, and sense stimulation from outside the womb. At this stage, the unborn human being takes on "the human form" in all relevant aspects as stated in Gonzales v. Carhart, The United States Supreme Court has recognized that a state has an "important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life" in Roe v. Wade ... and, specifically, that "the state has an interest in protecting the life of the unborn" as discussed in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey ... It is the intent of the General Assembly to restrict the practice of nontherapeutic or elective abortions to the period up to the eighteenth week of gestation.

    U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker, who had issued a 14-day restraining order on the laws two weeks ago, said the law that would force the closing of the last surgical abortion clinic "imposes substantial burdens on a large fraction of women seeking abortions in Arkansas that 'substantially outweigh' any state interest or any benefits to those women." She added in her injunction blocking the three laws, "Since the record at this stage of the proceedings indicates that women seeking abortions in Arkansas face an imminent threat to their constitutional rights, the court concludes that they will suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief," according to Fox News.

    Arkansas's attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, immediately filed an appeal of Baker's decision to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.