By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge temporarily blocked a key aspect of a new Arizona abortion law that would have allowed felony charges to be laid against doctors for terminating a pregnancy solely on the basis of a hereditary abnormality in the fetus.

A court filing on Tuesday by the United States District Court of Arizona shows that Douglas Rayes, a U.S. District judge raised concern in an order authorizing a partial injunction to the law.

Rayes stated in his order that “this problem is compounded by the fact that the decision to end a pregnancy can be complex and is often motivated by a range of considerations some of which are intertwined in connection with the detection or a fetal gene.”

A preliminary injunction was not granted by the judge for the other aspect of the bill that requires that fetuses as well as embryos and fertilized egg be called “people” at the time of conception.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that prohibited abortions on the basis only of genetic disorders in the fetus.

The bill, approved earlier in Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature along strict party-line votes, makes it a felony for a medical professional to terminate a pregnancy solely on the basis of a hereditary abnormality in the fetus.

Cathi Herrod (president of the Center for Arizona Policy), said that Tuesday’s decision was only the first time the federal courts had reviewed it.

Herrod stated that “we remain confident that the law will stand up and be ruled enforceable entirely.”

In a statement that was cited by Axios, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), expressed relief. ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Medical Association to challenge the law.

According to the ACLU, “People shouldn’t be asked about why they want an abortion.” Fusion Media stated that there are no correct or wrong reasons.