U.S. District Judge William Conley has granted a temporary restraining order preventing Wisconsin from enforcing a new and restrictive abortion law, CNN reported. Signed by the state's governor Scott Walker on Friday, bans doctors from performing abortion if they do no not have admitting privileges to hospitals within 30 minutes of their practice.
The measure, signed into law on Friday by Governor Scott Walker, requires women to undergo an ultrasound before they get an abortion and doctors who perform the procedure to have admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of their practice, Reuters reported.
'There is a troubling lack of justification for the hospital admitting privileges requirement," Judge Conley responded. The law also requires women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion, but the portion of the law was not challenged in the Planned Parenthood suit.
Those opposed to the Wisconsin legislation allege that restrictions in the law forces the closing of several abortion clinics, and that the law is simply a way to make access to abortions more difficult. Meanwhile, supporters of the law said it would guarantee a safer environment for a woman suffering from abortion-related complications.
"The current system already handles efficiently the very low percentage of women seeking abortions with serious complications," Judge Conley said.
The latest Wisconsin legal wrangling follows similar lawsuits in Mississippi and Alabama, where courts have likewise blocked statutes requiring admitting privileges for physicians to perform abortions, Reuters also reported, as according to data published July 1 by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports abortion rights.
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