A federal judge refused Friday to stay, or suspend, her July 2 injunction blocking the state from requiring abortion providers to contract with doctors with hospital privileges.
Attorneys for the state asked U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker to stay the injunction while they appealed it to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. A stay would allow the state to enforce Section 1504(d), also known as the contracted physician requirement, of the Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act of 2015.
Planned Parenthood has challenged the constitutionality of the section, saying it would effectively end medication-induced abortion in Arkansas because neither they nor Little Rock Family Planning Services, which also provides abortions, have been able to find a physician willing to contract with them as the section requires.
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