A federal judge has blocked part of North Carolina's new ultrasound viewing law that was set to take effect Wednesday

The law would have required doctors to give a woman an ultrasound before performing an abortion. It also requires doctors to describe the fetus in detail.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagle blocked the ultrasound viewing section of the law.

She also ruled that doctors do not have to describe the fetus' features. 

State officials "have not articulated how the speech-and-display requirements address the stated concern in reducing compelled abortions, and none is immediately apparent," the judge wrote in a preliminary injunction.

Another hearing has been scheduled for December.