Indiana Supreme Court upholds ban on abortion
A ruling by Indiana’s highest court on Friday paved the way for a state ban on most abortions from conception.
The court said the state constitution guarantees a limited right to abortion, but not a fundamental right – that means abortion will only be allowed if it’s necessary to save a woman’s life or protect her from a serious health risk.
The decision of the court scraps the temporary order for a near-total ban on abortion passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature last August after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution.
The case in Indiana resembles that in other states, where abortion rights groups have challenged the bans enacted after Roe’s reversal, arguing that several provisions in state constitutions protect the right to abortion.
On Friday, a federal judge ruled that most of a North Carolina abortion ban could continue beyond 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The Indiana Supreme Court said it was trying to resolve what it called the conflict between “two irreconcilable interests”: a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy and the state’s desire to protect potential life to protect.
By saying there was a limited but not “fundamental” right to abortion, the judges left the door open to future lawsuits, but only in cases where a woman’s life or health was in danger: “The General Assembly otherwise reserves broad legislative powers to determine whether and to what extent abortion should be banned.”
“We are celebrating this day — a day that is long overdue, but morally justified,” Todd Rokita, the state’s attorney general, said in a statement.
The coalition of providers and abortion rights groups that filed the lawsuit, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was “devastated” by the ruling, arguing it would deny “essential health care” to 1.5 million people in Indiana, and especially the poor and others who already encounter hurdles in seeking medical care.
“Patients will now be forced to flee the state to access abortion if they have the means, seek abortion outside health care, or become pregnant against their will with serious medical risks and life-altering consequences,” the prosecutors said. .
Indiana was the first state to pass a ban following the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Roe. The emotional two-week legislative debate over the measure showed the division — in Indiana and other states — even among anti-abortion rights Republicans. Some argued that the measure went too far, others objected that too many exceptions had been allowed.
The law prohibits abortion, except in cases of rape or incest, as long as the procedure is performed no more than 10 weeks after conception; cases of fatal fetal abnormalities; and when the mother is at risk of death.
It also requires abortions to be performed in certain hospitals, eliminating the licensing of clinics specializing in the procedure. Doctors who perform illegal abortions face a fine of up to $10,000 and six years in prison.
Abortion rights groups had argued that abortion was protected in the first part of the state constitution, which grants “certain inalienable rights” to its citizens, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
As long as the ban was blocked, abortion remained legal in the state until 22 weeks of gestation, making Indiana critical for access to abortion for women in nearby states that enacted a near-total ban. The state became the center of the abortion debate last summer after a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, where abortion was banned, sought an abortion in Indiana.
Indiana’s ban is expected to take effect Aug. 1, but the court’s decision left a small gap: A separate lawsuit argues that the ban violates a freedom of religion law passed in 2015 because some religions allow abortion. A judge in that case imposed a provisional injunction in December and the case will be heard in September. Until then, those who say the ban on abortion violates their freedom of religion can still request an abortion.
The four of the five justices who voted Friday to allow the ban to take effect essentially said the Indiana legislature had the right to ban abortion because it had a long tradition of doing so. That tradition was only broken “under protest” in 1973 when Roe v. Wade found that states could ban abortion only in the third trimester, and then only in limited circumstances.
“Our laws have long reflected that Hoosiers, through their elected representatives, can collectively conclude that the legal protection inherent in personality begins before birth,” the advisory said, referring to Indiana residents, “thus the broad authority of the state to protect the health and welfare of the public and security extends to protecting prenatal life.”
A judge, Christopher M. Goff, do not agree with that the state constitution did not protect a more fundamental right to abortion, saying that within the “bundle of liberty rights” was “the fundamental ‘right to be left alone’.” He wrote that “many of the freedoms that Hoosiers take for granted — the right to vote, to travel, to marry, to raise the children as they see fit, or to refuse medical treatment — are on federal precedents that are now also vulnerable. are for reversal.”
In his dissenting opinion, Judge Goff argued that Indiana residents should be allowed to vote on whether they want abortion to be legal, and urged the legislature to put the question on a ballot.
a Poll Public Religion Research Institute found in December that 61 percent of Indiana residents believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 10 percent believed it should be illegal in all cases, in line with national public opinion.