A circuit judge in Kentucky has blocked abortion restrictions from taking effect — in part because he said they adopt “a distinctly Christian and Catholic belief” about when life begins.

This is despite those same Churches maintaining that the beginning of life is a matter for science, not scripture.

The Kentucky laws would have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, around the sixth week, and made exceptions for the life of the mother or disabling injuries.

“The laws at issue here adopt the view embraced by some, but not all, religious traditions, that life begins at the moment of conception,” Judge Mitch Perry of the Jefferson County Circuit Court wrote in an opinion issued Friday.

“The General Assembly is not permitted to single out and endorse the doctrine of a favored faith for preferred treatment. By taking this approach, the bans fail to account for the diverse religious views of many Kentuckians whose faith leads them to take very different views of when life begins,” he said.

“There is nothing in our laws or history that allows for such theocratic based policymaking,” he added.