A federal judge Thursday afternoon heard arguments challenging four abortion laws set to take effect by early next year.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker came as part of a lawsuit filed June 20 by representatives for Dr. Frederick Hopkins, an obstetrician-gynecologist who performs abortions at Little Rock Planning Services.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Center or Reproductive Rights, which is based in New York.
Plaintiffs argued for about an hour that a preliminary injunction stopping the laws from going into effect is necessary. They called the laws unconstitutional and warned that such legislation could be an intrusion on patients seeking abortions, causing unnecessary delays.
The state says the groups are coming up with problems that don't exist in the new restrictions.
The ACLU said hours before Thursday’s hearing that the laws would “create new, needless, and burdensome requirements to report a young woman’s abortion to local police in a way that invades her and her family’s medical privacy.”
On Tuesday, attorneys for Arkansas filed hundreds of pages defending the new abortion laws.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge wrote that the laws “further the state’s critically important interests in promoting respect for human life” and “protecting the integrity of the medical profession.”
Rutledge added that the laws ensure that “those who sexually abuse young girls are brought to justice.”
The laws being challenged include a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure. The groups are also challenging part of a "sex-selection" abortion ban that they say would create delays, and new requirements on fetal tissue disposal.
They are outlined as Act 45, the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act; Act 733, the Prohibition Against Sex Discrimination by Abortion Act; Act 1018, an amended version of the Child Maltreatment Act; and Act 603, an amendment to the Law on Disposition of Fetal Remains.
Three are set to go into effect July 30, while the fourth is set to become law Jan. 1.
Another lawsuit — with a hearing set for Aug. 10 in the same court — challenged a fifth abortion-related law that would potentially impose penalties for infractions at clinics. Unless halted by an injunction, that law will take effect July 30.
Read Friday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press and Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.