A federal judge struck down a Texas Law Wednesday that imposed restrictions on second-trimester abortions.

West District Texas Judge Lee Yeakel overturned Senate Bill 8, which effectively prevented doctors from performing dilation and evacuation abortions by mandating that they must stop a fetus’s heart first, according to the New York Times.

Yeakel wrote in his decision that previous rulings in the Supreme Court demonstrate that legislators cannot obligate women to experience a medically unnecessary and invasive procedure for the benefit of the fetus.

He also said the decision to abort before a fetus can survive outside the womb “is solely and exclusively the woman’s decision.”

Laws that prevent D&E abortions pose an undue burden on women, Yeakel argued, pointing out that previous court decisions ruled such restrictions as unlawful. “Requiring a woman to undergo an unwanted, risky, invasive, and experimental procedure in exchange for exercising her right to choose an abortion, substantially burdens that right,” he wrote.

Proposals under the bill

The proposals available under the bill to stop a fetus’s heart before abortion included injecting a chemical into the pregnant woman’s abdomen, injection potassium chloride directly into the heart of the fetus or using instruments inserted through the v*gina and cervix to cut the umbilical cord.

Yeakel said the methods were unfeasible, untested, dangerous and add undue burden because they require multiple trips to the doctor’s office, according to the New York Times.

The other alternative available to woman apart from a D&E procedure is an induced abortion, which induces labor. However, this procedure is more costly and difficult and often requires hospitalization.

Bill's proponents

SB 8 was passed in May in Texas, according to Taylor Morrison. Proponents of the bill argued that D&E procedures were cruel and inhumane, claiming the fetuses could feel pain and would suffer due to the procedure.

“We know that children in the womb are capable of feeling pain. Prohibiting this practice is long overdue,” said state Sen.

Charles Perry in January, according to The Dallas Observer.

But scientists agree that fetuses cannot begin to feel pain any earlier than 24 weeks into development. However, Texas law bans abortion after 20 weeks, and D&E procedures are the easiest method of performing an abortion after 15 weeks.