Owen County District Judge Kelsey Hanlon issued a preliminary injunction against the ban that went into effect a week ago. The order was sought by abortion clinic operators who argued in a lawsuit that the state constitution protects access to the medical procedure. The ban was approved by the Republican-dominated state legislature on Aug. 5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact stricter abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal protections against abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade in June. The judge wrote “there is a reasonable possibility that this significant limitation of personal autonomy violates the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution” and that the clinics would prevail in the lawsuit. The provision prevents the state from enforcing the ban pending trial on the merits of the suit. Republican State Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement: “We plan to appeal and continue to pursue a lifelong case in Indiana.” Indiana’s ban followed the political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to terminate her pregnancy. The case gained widespread attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the child came to Indiana because of Ohio’s “fetal heartbeat” ban. An Ohio judge temporarily blocked that state law, indicating it would allow abortions up to 20 weeks into pregnancy until after a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 7. With Indiana now on hold, bans on abortion at any point in pregnancy are in place in 12 Republican-led states. In another state, Wisconsin, clinics have stopped providing abortions amid litigation over whether the 1849 ban applies. Georgia bans abortions once fetal heart activity is detected, and Florida and Utah have bans that begin after 15th and 18th week of pregnancy, respectively. Indiana’s ban, which includes limited exceptions, replaced state laws that generally banned abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and strictly limited them after the 13th week. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which represents abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit on Aug. 31 and argued that the ban would “prohibit the vast majority of abortions in Indiana and, therefore, have a devastating and irreparable impact on plaintiffs and , most importantly, their patients and customers.” Ken Falk, the legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, pointed to the state constitution’s bill of rights, including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” arguing before the judge Monday that it included the right to privacy and decision-making about whether they have children. The state attorney general’s office said the court should uphold the ban, calling arguments against it based on a “novel, unwritten, historically unsupported abortion right” in the state constitution. “The constitutional text nowhere mentions abortion, and Indiana has prohibited or strictly regulated abortion by law since 1835 — before, during and after the time the Indiana Constitution of 1851 was drafted, debated and ratified,” it said. the office in a court filing. . The question of whether the Indiana Constitution protects abortion rights is undecided. A 2004 state appeals court ruling said privacy was a core value under the state constitution that extended to all residents, including women seeking abortions. But the Indiana Supreme Court later overturned that decision without considering whether the state constitution contained such a right. Hanlon, a Republican who was first elected in 2014 as a judge in the rural southern Indiana county, wrote that Indiana’s constitution “is clearer in affirming individual rights and limiting legislative power to intrude into private affairs” than the US Constitution. . “There is a reasonable possibility that family planning decisions, including decisions about whether to carry a pregnancy to term,” are protected by the state constitution, Hanlon wrote. Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic operators involved in the lawsuit said in a statement that they are “grateful that the court has granted patients, clients and providers much-needed relief, but this fight is far from over.” “Indiana lawmakers have made it abundantly clear that this harm, this cruelty, is exactly the reality they had in mind when they voted (to ban abortion),” the statement said. Indiana’s abortion ban includes exceptions that allow abortions in cases of rape and incest before 10 weeks after fertilization. to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a fatal abnormality. The new law also prohibited abortion clinics from providing any abortion care, leaving such services exclusively to hospitals or hospital-owned outpatient surgery centers.
