INDIANA–October 13, 2022–The Indiana Supreme Court issued an order Wednesday that prevents the state from enforcing a Republican-backed abortion ban while it considers whether it violates the state constitution.
The court said in the order that it was taking over appeals of a judge’s decision last month that blocked the law a week after it took effect. It denied a request from the state attorney general’s office to set aside the preliminary injunction, setting a hearing on the lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators for Jan. 12.
The attorney general’s office had asked the Supreme Court to take over the case, bypassing the typical intermediate step of it being considered by the state appeals.
Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon blocked the law from being enforced, writing that “there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution” and that the clinics will prevail in the lawsuit.
The ban was approved by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature on Aug. 5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.
The five-member Supreme Court, all of whom were appointed by Republican governors, did not explain their decision.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit Aug. 31. It argued that the ban would “prohibit the overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana and, as such, will have a devastating and irreparable impact on the plaintiffs and, more importantly, their patients and clients.”
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Source: WTHU reported the story.
