A federal judge struck down an Arkansas law banning most abortions starting at 12 weeks of pregnancy, if a fetal heartbeat could be detected by standard ultrasound, as unconstitutional, Reuters reports: "U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that the law 'impermissibly infringes a woman's Fourteenth Amendment right to elect to terminate a pregnancy before viability' of the fetus, as established by the U.S. Supreme Court."
The decision lets stand the requirement that women seeking abortions must undergo ultrasounds to determine if fetal heartbeats are present, Reuters also reports.
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