Planned Parenthood seeks appeal in Monroe County abortion ban-related case

MONROE COUNTY, Ind. — Planned Parenthood has appealed a recent ruling in Monroe County Court which denied a request to expand and clarify an exception to Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.

This will move the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals, according to a news release from the ACLU of Indiana, a group of lawyers who are representing Planned Parenthood in this particular case.

In mid-September , a special judge in Monroe County denied the request to expand the exception. Judge Kelsey Hanlon said at the time that the law does not burden the rights of Indiana residents in regard to their access to constitutionally protected abortion care.

The initial request from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers asked the judge to include additional medical exceptions to Indiana’s near-total abortion ban and to block its hospital-only requirement. According to previous reports, the law prohibits all abortions in the state of Indiana except for:

• In the case a physician determines that an “abortion is necessary when reasonable medical judgment dictates that performing the abortion is necessary to prevent any serious health risk to the pregnant woman or to save the pregnant woman’s life.”
• In the case a physician determines that the fetus has a “lethal fetal anomaly,” before the earlier of viability or twenty (20) weeks of post-fertilization age.
• In the case the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, an abortion can be performed during the first 10 weeks of post-fertilization.

Planned Parenthood argued that the law restricts access to care in Indiana because women may need abortions for reasons that do not meet “the limited exception for serious health risks” featured in the law. The group also argued that the law’s hospital requirement is unconstitutional because it increases the cost and decreases access to abortion.

The judge said at the time that the plaintiffs did not identify a situation where an abortion would fall outside of the law’s exceptions and be “necessary” to guard against a serious health risk. Hanlon also said that hospitals and healthcare providers have developed guidance and procedures to abide by the state’s law.

Hanlon also said that the plaintiffs did not show how the hospital requirement of the law was “burdensome.”

“The court is not tasked with determining the wisdom of SB 1,” the court said at the time . “Rather, the court limits its analysis to whether SB 1 prevents patients from exercising a constitutional right to protect themselves against serious health risks by materially burdening access to abortions necessary to address that risk.”

In the release, Planned Parenthood states that the health and life exception in Indiana’s near-total abortion ban is “limited and ambiguous.”

“As this lawsuit proceeds, Hoosiers’ lives hang in the balance under Indiana’s near-total abortion ban,” a statement in the release reads. “This extreme restriction is putting pregnant people’s health at serious risk, leading to preventable tragedies and even death. Hoosiers deserve better, and the Indiana Constitution demands better. We are resolute in our commitment to providing the highest quality services to our patients and clients and fighting for a future without political interference in personal health care decisions.”

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