SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois law requiring parental notification of abortions that has been in legal limbo for 14 years technically went into effect for a few hours on Wednesday — then was suspended again.

The 1995 law would require doctors to give 48 hours notice to the parents of girls 17 years old or younger before performing an abortion. Implementation had been held up by court battles and administrative issues since then.

A decision Wednesday by the state's Medical Disciplinary Board appeared to clear the way for enforcement of the law to begin. But hours later, a Cook County judge issued a temporary restraining order again suspending the law.

Unlike Missouri's "parental consent" law, the Illinois measure doesn't require that parents approve the abortion, only that they're informed of it. The law sets up an exception in cases where the teen has been abused or may be in danger because of the notification, allowing a judge to give permission to bypass the notification rule.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was unable to stop the law earlier based on a U.S. constitutional argument, is arguing in a new suit that it violates the state's constitution and won the order to halt implementation.

"It is a violation of the provisions of the Illinois constitution that protect medical privacy … and (prohibit) gender discrimination," says ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka. "When you regulate pregnancy, there is only one gender you are regulating."

Yohnka, like other opponents of the law, argues that it will create "real harm and danger" for some pregnant teens from abusive homes, who may not be able or willing to invoke the provision in the law that allows judicial bypass in those cases.

Peter Breen, attorney for the Thomas More Society, which is on the other side of the suit, argues that the state-constitutional argument is "an end-run around the federal case that they lost."

"This law is perfectly valid and perfectly constitutional," said Breen. "This is about parents and kids talking to one another. … This is a measure that helps bring families together."