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Hood says he'll appeal blocking of Mississippi abortion law

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(file) Attorney General Jim Hood
MPB News

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi's attorney general says he will appeal a federal judge's ruling blocking a restrictive abortion law.

   Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday that he would file an appeal Friday the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

   U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves last month blocked a Mississippi law that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy.

   The order stopped the law from taking effect July 1. Reeves is the same judge who struck down a 2018 Mississippi law to ban abortion at 15 weeks.

   Mississippi is one of several states this year that have enacted bans on early abortions. Opponents of abortion are emboldened by new conservative Supreme Court justices and seek to challenge the court's 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.