A US judge today blocked a statewide ban on abortion in Louisiana and clinics in Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas sued seeking similar relief.

It follows last Friday's Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to the procedure for American women.

The five states are among the 13 with "trigger laws" designed to ban or severely restrict abortions once the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

In Louisiana, abortion services that had been halted since Friday began resuming after Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Robin Giarrusso today issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from carrying out its ban.

The order came shortly after Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport - one of Louisiana's three abortion clinics - sued, arguing Louisiana's trigger laws "lack constitutionally required safeguards to prevent arbitrary enforcement."

The judge set a 8 July hearing to decide whether to further block enforcement of the ban, which Hope Medical said violated its due process rights under the state's constitution.

In Republican-led Texas, where a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect last year, a judge in Harris County will hear arguments tomorrow on whether to block officials from enforcing pre-Roe v Wade abortion prohibitions.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton had said in a Friday advisory that while the state's 2021 trigger ban would not take effect for 30 days after the Supreme Court's ruling, prosecutors could immediately pursue cases based on pre-1973 laws.

In Idaho, a Planned Parenthood affiliate asked the state's highest court to block enforcement of a "trigger" law banning abortion that the Republican-controlled state legislature passed in 2020 that would take effect on 19 August.

Similar lawsuits were filed by abortion providers in Kentucky and Mississippi, asking state courts to block enforcement of "trigger" bans that they say would violate the states' constitutions.

Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in a statement said his office was "fully prepared to defend these laws in our state courts, just as we have in our federal courts."

His Republican counterparts in Kentucky and Mississippi, Daniel Cameron and Lynn Fynch, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Mr Paxton.