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Indiana has narrow exceptions for obtaining an abortion (not narrow enough for pro-lifers). Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky wants to expand medical exceptions for abortion in the state, according to Liberty Counsel.
Indiana lawmakers allow abortions only to preserve the woman’s health or in cases of rape, incest, or fetal anomalies.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the issue returned to the states. Some have banned any abortions. Others have gestational limits to killing unborn babies, while Oregon and Vermont seem to have no limits at all. In theory (and practice?), women can kill their own children up to birth in those states.
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against Indiana’s medical licensing board on the grounds that the law is unnecessarily restrictive, the medical exceptions too narrow, and the law discriminates against facilities that kill unborn babies in favor of hospitals. Abortion facilities are more convenient, the former abortion giant said.
A judge disagreed. In denying Planned Parenthood’s motion for a permanent injunction, the judge contended (PDF) that Planned Parenthood has not shown that the law “materially burdens the rights of any specific patient or well-defined class of patients to access constitutionally protected abortion care.”
This is the second time a court ruled against Planned Parenthood regarding Indiana. The state’s highest court also ruled against the abortion mill. From Liberty Counsel:
While Planned Parenthood argued that illnesses such as diabetes, preeclampsia, auto-immune disorders, obstructive sleep apnea, mental illnesses, and more fell under “constitutionally-protected abortions,” Judge Hanlon noted that experts on “both sides” agree that abortion “is not the only way” to treat these conditions.
In her ruling, Hanlon stated that there could be situations where physicians “may want to perform an abortion,” but that there had not been a single medical condition identified that fell outside the law’s set of exceptions while simultaneously being “necessary” to preserve the life or health of the mother.
“Every person, whether unborn or born, has a right to life,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman. “Planned Parenthood wants to continue to profit from aborting innocent babies without regard to the health and safety of women. Abortion laws protect women and save lives.”
Photo credit: American Life League (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
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