An anti-abortion counseling group can't help defend an Arkansas law being challenged that bans the procedure 12 weeks into a woman's pregnancy, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright denied the motion by Concepts of Truth, a Wynne-based organization, to intervene in the lawsuit over the constitutionality of Arkansas' 12-week ban. Two Little Rock doctors who perform abortions are challenging the law, which Wright has temporarily blocked.
Concepts of Truth provides counseling to pregnant women who are considering having an abortion and says it operates a national call center to counsel women who have had the procedure.
Wright ruled that the group couldn't prove it had standing in the case.
"Act 301 does not require physicians to inform a woman seeking an abortion about the services offered by Concepts or any other organization, and the invalidation of Act 301 would not upset the status quo or restrict Concepts' ability to continue providing services to pregnant women," she wrote in her ruling.
Wright, however, ruled that the group could file an amicus, or friend of the court, brief in the case.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued the state over the ban in April on behalf of Dr. Louis Jerry Edwards and Dr. Tom Tvedten, who provide abortions at a Little Rock clinic.
A trial has tentatively been scheduled for next year. Wright has issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, which had been set to take effect in August.
The Republican-led Legislature enacted the ban in March when it overrode Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of the measure. Beebe and other opponents of the ban say it violated the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion until a fetus could viably survive outside the womb. A fetus is generally considered viable at 22 to 24 weeks.
