INDIANAPOLIS - After an Indiana judge on Thursday blocked the state's abortion ban from being enforced, phones starting ringing across Indiana abortion clinics, which are preparing to resume the procedure a week after the ban had gone into effect."People are getting the word that abortion is now legal again, and people are ready to get their health care that they deserve and that they desire," Dr.
Katie McHugh, an abortion provider at Women's Med in Indianapolis, told The Associated Press.Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, putting the new law on hold as abortion clinic operators argue in a lawsuit that it violates the state constitution.Indiana's seven abortion clinics were to lose their state licenses under the ban — which only permits abortions within its narrow exceptions to take place in hospitals or outpatient surgical centers.The ban was approved by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature on Aug.
5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions since the U.S.
Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.RELATED: State by state: Abortion laws across the U.S.The judge wrote "there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution" and that the clinics will prevail in the lawsuit.