Current:Home > reviewsLawsuit challenging Indiana abortion ban survives a state challenge-DB Wealth Institute B2 Reviews & Ratings
Lawsuit challenging Indiana abortion ban survives a state challenge
lotradecoin profitability View Date:2024-12-25 21:32:17
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals gave an incremental win Thursday to a group of residents suing the state over its near-total abortion ban, arguing that it violates a state law protecting religious freedom.
The three-judge panel’s ruling agreed with a lower court that plaintiffs with a religious objection to the ban should be exempt from it. But the written decision had no immediate effect and may be challenged in the state Supreme Court within the next 45 days.
Indiana’s near total abortion ban went into effect in August after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld it, ending a separate legal challenge.
The religious challenge against the ban was brought by four residents and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice in September 2022, saying it violates a state religious-freedom law Republican lawmakers approved in 2015. A county judge sided with the residents — who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana — last December. Indiana later appealed the decision.
“For many Hoosiers, the ability to obtain an abortion is necessary based on a sincerely held religious belief,” said Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana Legal Director, in a statement.
The appeals court ordered the trial court to “narrow” the earlier preliminary injunction only to residents who according to their sincerely held religious beliefs require an abortion. The order also affirmed class certification in the case, which the state challenged.
The ACLU’s lawsuit argues that the ban violates Jewish teaching that “a fetus attains the status of a living person only at birth” and that “Jewish law stresses the necessity of protecting the life and physical and mental health of the mother prior to birth as the fetus is not yet deemed to be a person.” It also cites theological teachings allowing abortion in at least some circumstances by Islamic, Episcopal, Unitarian Universalist and Pagan faiths.
“We are dealing with a very favorable decision that is not yet final,” Falk said when speaking to reporters Thursday. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office did not immediately comment on the ruling.
The appeals court panel consistently sided with the residents over the state of Indiana fighting the injunction. The judges agreed with the original county judge that for the plaintiffs, obtaining an abortion when directed by their sincere religious beliefs “is their exercise of religion.”
“They also have shown their sexual and reproductive lives will continue to be restricted absent the injunction,” the order said.
A judge heard arguments in a similar lawsuit in Missouri in November, in which 13 Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders are seeking a permanent injunction barring Missouri’s abortion law. The lawyers for the plaintiffs said at a court hearing that state lawmakers intended to “impose their religious beliefs on everyone” in the state.
Three Jewish women have sued in Kentucky, claiming the state’s ban violates their religious rights under the state’s constitution and religious freedom law.
Indiana became the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
The near total ban makes exceptions for abortions at hospitals in cases of rape or incest and to protect the life and physical health of the mother or if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.
The ACLU revamped another legal challenge to the ban in November. In an amended complaint, abortion providers are seeking a preliminary junction on the ban in order to expand medical exemptions and block the requirement that abortions must be provided at a hospital.
veryGood! (6)
Related
- A weatherman had a panic attack live on air. What it teaches us.
- U.S. Soldiers Falling Ill, Dying in the Heat as Climate Warms
- Flood Risks from All Sides: Barry’s Triple Whammy in Louisiana
- Alaska Chokes on Wildfires as Heat Waves Dry Out the Arctic
- 2025 COLA estimate dips with inflation, but high daily expenses still burn seniors
- Alaska Chokes on Wildfires as Heat Waves Dry Out the Arctic
- When homelessness and mental illness overlap, is forced treatment compassionate?
- This Week in Clean Economy: West Coast ‘Green’ Jobs Data Shows Promise
- A teen was falling asleep during a courtroom field trip. She ended up in cuffs and jail clothes
- Anne Hathaway's Stylist Erin Walsh Explains the Star's Groundbreaking Fashion Era
Ranking
- US unemployment claims fall 7,000 to 227,000 in sign of resiliency in job market
- Ulta 24-Hour Flash Deal: Save 50% On a Bed Head Hair Waver That Creates Waves That Last for Days
- Grief and tangled politics were at the heart of Kentucky's fight over new trans law
- Days of 100-Degree Heat Will Become Weeks as Climate Warms, U.S. Study Warns
- Kaley Cuoco and Tom Pelphrey announce engagement with new photos
- Transcript: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Face the Nation, June 18, 2023
- With 10 Appointees on the Ninth Circuit, Trump Seeks to Tame His Nemesis
- Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats’ Divide
Recommendation
-
Ranking MLB jersey advertisements: Whose patch is least offensive?
-
1 dead, at least 18 injured after tornado hits central Mississippi town
-
Federal appeals court preserves access to abortion drug but with tighter rules
-
Don’t Miss This $65 Deal on $142 Worth of Peter Thomas Roth Anti-Aging Skincare Products
-
The Sunscreen and Moisturizer Duo That Saved My Skin on a Massively Hot European Vacation
-
Where gender-affirming care for youth is banned, intersex surgery may be allowed
-
146 dogs found dead in home of Ohio dog shelter's founding operator
-
In Montana, Children File Suit to Protect ‘the Last Best Place’