(NRLC) Eleventh hour stalling tactics by the ACLU proved in vain today [ Mon., Aug. 21] when the Indiana Supreme Court turned down a last-ditch request to rehear the case involving SEA 1. Signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in August 2022, Senate Bill 1 allows abortions only in cases of rape or incest, when there’s a serious risk to the life of the mother or when fatal fetal anomalies are present.
“My office promised to defend Indiana’s pro-life law, and we have done that every step of the way,” said pro-life Attorney General Todd Rokita. “Today, the Indiana Supreme Court certified its opinion rejecting a constitutional challenge to Indiana’s pro-life law, which protects the lives of innocent, unborn babies. This is great news for Hoosier life and liberty. We defeated the pro-death advocates who try to interject their views in a state that clearly voted for life
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In July, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the law does not violate the state Constitution. Justice Derek R. Molter wrote that the state’s 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.”
According to the Chicago Sun Times the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana then asked the state’s high court “to keep Indiana’s near-total abortion ban on hold while it pursues a narrower preliminary injunction in a trial court to address the scope of the ban’s exemption allowing women facing serious health risks to obtain abortions.”
However, “Chief Justice Loretta Rush, in an opinion, stated that the parties asking for a rehearing in the case did not “properly” put concerns about the impact of the abortion law on Hoosier women seeking medical care for serious health conditions or on health care providers,” according to Brittany Carloni of the Indianapolis Star.
Tweet This: Stalling tactics failed Mon when the Indiana Supreme Court declined the ALCU's request to rehear the case on the state's pro-life law.
“The law passed last year limits abortions to be performed in hospitals,” Carloni continued. “The vast majority of the more than 9,500 abortions that took place in Indiana occurred in outpatient clinics; fewer than 200 of the procedures occurred in hospitals, according to the state’s annual terminated pregnancy report.”
Editor's note: This article was published by National Right to Life News and is reprinted with permission.
