In Texas, a federal judge has blocked key provisions of a law that would require women seeking an abortion to view a sonogram and listen to the heartbeat of their fetus. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said, “The act compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen.” Judge Sparks also blocked provisions that would have called for canceling a doctor’s license or imposing a criminal penalty on physicians for failure to abide by the law.