A federal appeals court has ruled an Arkansas state law banning abortion when a heartbeat is detected violates the Constitution.

The ruling upholds the decision of a lower court.

The Human Heartbeat Protection Act was passed in March 2013 and legislators had to override the veto of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to make it law.  The Act required all women to obtain an ultrasound before an abortion and if a heartbeat was detected, it was no longer legal to obtain the abortion.

The law had first been struck down in April 2014 by judge Susan Webber Wright who claimed that Roe v. Wade required viability of the baby and not just a heartbeat.

“The Court finds as a matter of law that the 12-week abortion ban included in Act 301 prohibits pre-viability abortions and thus impermissibly infringes a woman’s 14th Amendment right to elect to terminate a pregnancy before viability,” she wrote. “The state presents no evidence that a fetus can live outside the mother’s womb at twelve weeks.”

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the viability claim of the lower court.

Arkansas state officials are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.