CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2020 / 16:31 pm
A federal court has declined to reconsider an August decision allowing several abortion restrictions in Arkansas to take effect.
A district judge had previously blocked the laws - which the state passed in mid-2017 - following a legal challenge from the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of a local abortion doctor.
The laws include a ban on abortions based solely on the sex of the baby, and two regulations on the preservation and disposal of tissue from aborted babies, as well as legislation prohibiting a second-trimester abortion method known as "dilation and evacuation," by which an unborn baby is dismembered. The laws also require doctors performing abortions on patients under 14 years old to notify police where the patient resides.
In August 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled to reinstate the Arkansas laws. On Dec. 16, the court announced that it will not reconsider the decision to lift the district judge's injunction.