Mississippi will appeal judge’s ruling on abortion law

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi is giving notice that it will continue defending one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.

The law would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That’s at about six weeks’ gestation, when a woman may not yet know she’s pregnant.

The state attorney general’s office filed a short document Friday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The state will file detailed arguments later, asking the court to reverse U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves’s injunction that blocks the law from taking effect July 1.

Mississippi is one of several states enacting early bans on abortion this year. Abortion opponents are emboldened by new conservative Supreme Court justices and seek to challenge the court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.