Missouri law banning abortion after 8 weeks blocked by federal judge

Missouri's new abortion law has just been temporarily blocked by a federal judge a day before it would have taken effect.

U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs on Tuesday blocked the new abortion law from taking effect on Wednesday as scheduled, NBC News reports.

This law would ban abortions after eight weeks without exceptions for rape or incest, although there are exceptions for cases of medical emergencies. Doctors who perform abortions could be charged with felonies under the law, The New York Times reports. It was signed by the state's Republican governor, Mike Parson, in May amid a wave of restrictive new abortion legislation across the country, including in Alabama and Georgia.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Sachs said on Tuesday that the Missouri law "seems designed ... as a protest against Supreme Court decisions," Reuters reports. He also said that the law "conflicts with the Supreme Court ruling that neither legislative or judicial limits on abortion can be measured by specified weeks or development of a fetus," CNN reports. A full temporary injunction as had been requested was not granted, NPR notes, but Sachs said his order blocking portions of the law from being enforced would still achieve the "desired result" Planned Parenthood had asked for.

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have been suing over the law, saying it would deny access to the "vast majority of patients," NBC notes. Should the 8-week ban be tossed out, CNN reports the law also includes bans of between 14 and 20 weeks that could go into effect. The legal challenge to the law will continue in court.