A Mississippi federal judge halted the state's controversial anti-abortion ruling, calling the ban unconstitutional.

CBS News reports U.S. Judge Carlton Reeves criticized the law for "preventing a woman's free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy." In a ruling issued on Friday, Reeves struck down the latest ban because the law does not take into account how women's bodies work.

"S.B. 2116 threatens immediate harm to women's rights, especially considering most women do not seek abortion services until after 6 weeks. Allowing the law to take effect would force the clinic to stop providing most abortion care," he wrote in the ruling.

Reeves is an Obama-era appointed judge who struck down Mississippi's 15-week ban late last year. According to CNN, the state passed two bills that hinge on a fetal heartbeat. The "fetal heartbeat" bills would ban abortion as early as six weeks. Critics pointed out the ban would be in effect before women find out they were pregnant.

The latest law will take effect in July.

"Instead of banning abortion, S.B. 2116 regulates the time period during which abortions may be performed," the filing added. "As such, it is akin to laws regulating the time, place, or manner of speech, which have been upheld as constitutional.

Mississippi is one of a handful of states that are in the midst of implementing abortion bans that will regulate and limit reproduction rights. Georgia, Missouri, Alabama and Ohio have successfully implemented laws with very little resistance. Some bills will ban abortions at eight weeks. The Democratic governor of Louisana is set to sign a similar heartbeat abortion ban into law.

The law makes no exception for rape and/or incest. Like many of the other laws passed in recent weeks, victims of rape or incest may be forced to carry a child to full term.

"So a child who is raped at 10 or 11 — who has not revealed to her parents that the rape has occurred … the child must bring this fetus to term under the statute?" he asked.

According to The Clarion-Ledger, Reeves was a federal judge since 2010. He presided over the 2011 hate crime case of James Craig Anderson, a Black man in Jackson, Mississippi, who was run down in a pickup by white men.

In wake of the wave of recent anti-abortion legislation, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood are vowing to fight back before the majority of the recent bills become law next year.

U.S. Judge Carlton Reeves

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