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A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday blocked Missouri from enforcing a law banning abortion in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy except in cases of medical emergency, acting just a day before the law was set to take effect. U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs in Kansas City temporarily halted the law, pending litigation or a further order of the court, saying it would negatively impact the rights of hundreds of women. (8/27)

"The various sections specifying prohibitions on abortions at various weeks prior to viability cannot be allowed to go into effect on August 28, as scheduled," writes US District Judge Howard Sachs in an 11-page opinion. "However formulated, the legislation on its face conflicts with the Supreme Court ruling that neither legislative or judicial limits on abortion can be measured by specified weeks or development of a fetus; instead, 'viability' is the sole test for a State's authority to prohibit abortions where there is no maternal health issue," Sachs wrote. (Kelly, 8/27)

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri sued the state, saying the law was unconstitutional and contrary to the Roe v. Wade decision. The Missouri law signed in May would ban abortions before many women know they are pregnant, with no exceptions for rape or incest, making it one of the strictest in the country. If the court doesn’t uphold the ban, the bill includes less-strict bans ranging from 14 weeks to 20 weeks, the Associated Press reported. (Horton, 8/27)

Lawyers said the eight-week ban would have a devastating effect and cause irreparable harm to clinics and patients. “What little abortion access in Missouri is left will stay in place for the time being,” Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s acting president and chief executive, said in a statement Tuesday. (Calfas, 8/27)

The law carves out exceptions only for a "medical emergency," defined as a situation in which the pregnant woman faces death or "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." It contains no exceptions for incest or rape. Under the law, abortion providers face from five to 15 years in prison and the loss of their medical license if they violate any of the gestational age bans. (Margolies, 8/27)

Missouri already has some of the nation's most restrictive abortion regulations. A clinic in St. Louis is the only one in the state that performs abortions. Sachs' ruling says allowing the eight-week abortion ban to be enforced would have blocked about half of reported abortions in Missouri. The judge wrote that it would amount to "significant interference with plaintiffs' service and the rights of its prospective patients." (Ballentine and Stafford, 8/27)

Kristan Hawkins, president of the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America, said the ruling would motivate anti-abortion voters next year. "Rulings like these will motivate voters in 2020 because the courts should not be able to ignore the legislative process," she said in a statement. (McIntire, 8/27)

A federal judge Tuesday temporarily blocked part of Missouri’s new abortion law, pausing prohibitions against abortion based on gestational age, but letting stand the provision barring the procedure for reasons of sex, race, or Down Syndrome diagnosis. The decision, by U.S. District Court Judge Howard Sachs, was handed down on the eve of the law’s scheduled implementation. It followed a two-hour Monday hearing in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Missouri’s Kansas City courthouse. (Thomas, 8/27)

Oregon's health care agency said Tuesday it will no longer use federal dollars to fund family planning clinics because of new Trump administration rules that impose additional hurdles for women seeking abortion. Patrick Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority, said in a statement that banning taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals — as the newly implemented federal rules require — would cause Oregon to violate its own laws on reproductive care. (Flaccus, 8/27)

Oregon on Tuesday announced it has exited a federal family planning program over opposition to the Trump administration’s new abortion restrictions. In a letter sent Monday to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Oregon Health Authority said it would withdraw from the Title X family planning grant program rather than follow new rules banning grantees from referring women for abortions. (Weixel, 8/27)