The U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow Arizona to enforce stringent restrictions on medical abortions.

That decision has left in place a lower court ruling in Planned Parenthood Arizona et al. v. Humble that blocked the rules that regulate where and how women can take drugs to induce abortion. The measure will remain preliminarily blocked while the case moves forward in the federal district court, according to The Associated Press.

"This is a significant victory for Arizona women. This case represented a major threat to the right of women in Arizona and across the nation to make personal medical decisions that have been their constitutional right for more than 40 years," said Bryan Howard, president and CEO Planned Parenthood Arizona. "The Court did the right thing today, but this dangerous and unconstitutional law should never have passed in the legislature in the first place."

The rules would have prohibited the use of abortion medications after the seventh week of pregnancy instead of the ninth and also required the drug be taken at doses approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Opposition to the drug, Arizona petitioners pointed to the deaths of at least eight women who took the drugs, but the FDA investigated the deaths and found no connection between them and the use of abortion medication.

The FDA approved the use of the abortion-inducing drug, mifepristone, after the seventh week of pregnancy in 2000. Since the approval, medical researchers and clinical trials show the drug is effective in smaller doses and for two weeks longer in pregnancy.

Similar laws restricting the use of the drug are in place in North Dakota, Ohio and Texas, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the restriction in that state.

In striking down a similar law, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled, "[It] is so completely at odds with the standard that governs the practice of medicine that it can serve no purpose other than to prevent women from obtaining abortions and to punish and discriminate against those women."

Planned Parenthood said medical abortions now account for more than 40 percent of abortions at its clinics.

Arizona tried to ban abortion at 20 weeks, but that was declare unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in January. Another law would have prevented Planned Parenthood health centers from providing cancer screenings, birth control and other care to their patients through Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. The Court of Appeals also ruled against the restriction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in February.