INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana’s near-total abortion ban that prohibits the procedure with only narrow exceptions will go back into effect after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the law Friday. But justices left open the possibility for other challenges in the future.
In a split decision, the high court nixed a preliminary injunction that has kept the ban on hold since September.
Justices opined that the plaintiffs, which included Planned Parenthood and multiple other health care providers, unsuccessfully brought a “facial” challenge to the entire law, alleging that the abortion ban is always unconstitutional and should therefore be voided.
The state Supreme Court said the providers “cannot show a reasonable likelihood of success” with that challenge, however.
” … we hold that Article 1, Section 1 (of the Indiana Constitution) protects a woman’s right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or to protect her from a serious health risk, but the General Assembly otherwise retains broad legislative discretion for determining whether and the extent to which to prohibit abortions,” Justice Derek Molter wrote in the ruling.
The five Indiana justices heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of the new law in January.
The court challenge was originally filed in Monroe County Circuit Court in August by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana on behalf of healthcare providers and a pregnancy resource center.
A special judge in Owen County later ruled that the ban likely violates the Indiana Constitution. An injunction issued by Judge Kelsey Blake Hanlon, a Republican, halted the state’s new abortion law one week after it took effect. Under the injunction, the state’s previous abortion law stood — allowing abortions up to 20 weeks.
With the new ruling, however, the abortion ban once again takes effect.
The Republican-dominated Indiana General Assembly advanced the abortion-restricting measure during a heated, two-week special session last August.
That made Indiana the first state in the nation to approve such legislation since the high court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
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