At the direction of a federal appeals court, a federal judge in Little Rock on Friday vacated a preliminary injunction she issued July 2 preventing the state from enforcing Act 577 of 2015, which required doctors in Arkansas who perform medication-induced abortions to contract with a second doctor with hospital-admitting privileges.
The directive from U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker was prompted by a joint request from Planned Parenthood and the state to vacate the injunction and dismiss the appeal after a contracting doctor came forward, mooting the dispute. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 577 is still pending, however.
Planned Parenthood, which provides medication abortions at its clinics in Little Rock and Fayetteville, had challenged the law on the grounds that the requirement was impossible to meet and had the effect of eliminating medication abortion in the state. That's because no doctor would agree to contract with the clinic despite previous letters the clinic sent out to all obstetricians/gynecologists statewide.
The law also affected Little Rock Family Planning Services, which operates a clinic in Little Rock that provides medication-induced and surgical abortions but didn't join the lawsuit as a plaintiff.
Baker granted the preliminary injunction that Planned Parenthood sought, stopping enforcement of the law until its constitutionality could be determined. Baker had issued a similar injunction in May 2016, but a three-judge panel at the 8th Circuit dissolved that injunction on July 28, 2017, saying Baker first needed to conduct fact finding to determine whether a "large fraction" of Arkansas women seeking medication abortions would be unduly burdened by the law. She found that the law would indeed have that effect.
A trial on the law's constitutionality was anticipated next year.
Metro on 11/11/2018
CORRECTION: At the direction of a federal appeals court, a federal judge in Little Rock on Friday vacated a preliminary injunction she issued July 2 preventing the state from enforcing Act 577 of 2015, which required doctors in Arkansas who perform medication-induced abortions to contract with a second doctor with hospital-admitting privileges. The directive was prompted by a joint request from Planned Parenthood and the state to vacate the injunction and dismiss the appeal after a contracting doctor came forward, mooting the dispute. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 577 is still pending, however. The dismissal was incorrectly described in an earlier version of this story.