In federal court yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright blocked enforcement of Arkansas’ Human Heartbeat Protection Act. The restrictive law was passed in March, with the state legislature overriding a veto by Governor Mike Beebe. My colleague Stephen D. Foster Jr. covered this for us when the law passed.The injunction will remain in force until Judge Wright has a chance to rule on the constitutionality of the law, known as Act 301.

This comes through a lawsuit filed by two doctors with Little Rock Family Planning Services, Louis Jerry Edwards and Tom Tvedten. They say that 20% of Arkansas women would be denied medical care under the law and asked Judge Wright on April 16 to bar enforcement of the law while it is being reviewed. After a hearing in Little Rock on Friday, she did so. She told lawyers on both side of the case:

“Viability is the key here. I find it’s more likely than not that this act violates that premise. It defines viability as something viability is not.”

The act, which was slated to take effect on August 16, includes a strict punishment for medical providers who go against the law: revoking their medical license. This is what drove the ACLU to file a complaint on the same day as the doctors. The attorney for that suit, Bettina Brownstein, was at the hearing on Friday, too. She told reporters:

“We’re happy and relieved, but not really surprised. We anticipated a favorable ruling and continue to anticipate favorable rulings. The law’s really clear in this area.”

Indeed it is. The Supreme Court ruled in 1973 with Roe v. Wade and again in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that women have a constitutional right to abortion before a fetus is able to live outside the womb. Ever since, people who call themselves “pro-life” – but who are, in actuality, only pro-birth – have been trying to turn back the clock. New laws in several states are steadily chiseling away at that right by imposing ridiculous restrictions on both clinics that provide the procedure and the procedure itself. These laws are being challenged at every turn and it will take some time to beat back the challenges.

But the fight won’t be easy. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who declined to comment after the hearing, was arguing at the hearing that there was no evidence that a single woman would be unable to procure an abortion under Act 301, that it doesn’t prevent a woman from terminating a pregnancy in the first trimester. A bald-faced lie. The measure defines viability as when the heartbeat is first detected, a definition that is not upheld by the Supreme Court nor by the medical community. The legal definition of viability is the ability of a fetus to survive outside the womb, a far cry from when a heartbeat is detected.

Judge Wright is considering separating two parts of the act from the rest, as they appear to be constitutional. One would require a doctor to find the heartbeat in a fetus and report the results to the woman carrying it. The other would compel a doctor to inform a woman of the statistical likelihood of carrying a fetus to term should she decide not to abort. This latter case would be for fetuses who have shown an abnormality. Information is fine but I would hope that any doctor in either situation would be completely forthcoming to any woman who came to them for treatment. As we know, some doctors are perfectly fine with lying if it promotes their agenda. In fact, a couple of states – Kansas, Oklahoma – actually require it. I guess they forgot about the Hippocratic Oath.

This is good news, for now. At least one Judge understands the concept of both viability and constitutionality. It’s a start. We just need to keep pushing back against the anti-choice crowd.

T. Steelman is a life-long Liberal. She has been writing online about politics since 2007. She lives in Western Washington with her husband, daughter, 2 cats and a small herd of alpacas. How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is, after all, so poorly lit…