![Arkansas Governor signed abortion ban](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/405e727af9f8772eda4a4356be8f125d255e8332/0_0_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=2c69e4f49dfa2f88823dc18e47819f44)
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban nearly all abortions.
The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson.
However, US district judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily halting the law in its tracks, in a win for pro-choice supporters, while a lawsuit against its constitutionality proceeds.
The law would ban clinical providers from carrying out abortions “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency”. It also does not provide exceptions for pregnancies occurring through incest or rape or involving fetal anomalies.