Indiana’s abortion laws will likely be tightened even before the Legislature is expected to start debating additional abortion restrictions later this month.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana conceded defeat Friday in their fight to block two anti-abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to end constitutional protection for abortion. That led the state attorney general’s office on Wednesday to ask U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker in Indianapolis to sign off on orders that would lift her injunctions that have prevented enforcement of those laws.
The laws would ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure that the legislation refers to as “dismemberment abortion” and require parents to be notified if a court allows a girl younger than 18 to get abortion without parental consent.
Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office asked in court filings June 27 that those laws be allowed to take effect. The ACLU, which represents Planned Parenthood and a doctor in the lawsuits, filed responses that the defendants would not oppose lifting the injunctions in light of the Supreme Court overturning its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that provided federal protection for abortions.