It Begins: Federal Judge Strikes Down Indiana Law

It took less than a week, but the impact of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Whole Woman’s Health case is now being felt well beyond the borders of Texas.

Thursday in Indiana, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted a preliminary injunction requested by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky to block the enactment of Indiana’s law that banned abortions sought because of “genetic abnormalities.” Attorneys for the abortionists successfully argued the state does not have the authority to limit a woman’s reasons for ending a pregnancy, that the law was unconstitutional, and that it violated women’s privacy rights.

The law would have prevented abortions in cases where a child is diagnosed with Down Syndrome, or when the unborn’s race, gender, or ancestry are at issue. It was set to take effect Friday.

Pratt said the Indiana law violates U.S. Supreme Court precedents that states may not prohibit a woman from seeking an abortion before a baby is able to live outside the womb. She also said the state had not cited any exceptions to that standard.

“It is a woman’s right to choose an abortion that is protected, which, of course, leaves no room for the state to examine the basis or bases upon which a woman makes her choice,” she wrote.

Pratt’s order also blocks a state requirement that aborted children be buried or cremated. Currently, Planned Parenthood disposes of the unborn it terminates by incineration, as is the standard hospital practice when disposing medical tissue.

“Today a federal judge denied the civil rights of unborn children, then proceeded to equate aborted children to common medical waste by blocking dignified disposal,” Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter said. “This ruling is an appalling human rights injustice.”