The Indiana Court of Appeals will review a judge's Sept. 11 decision that declined to identify the specific medical maladies Hoosier women must suffer to legally terminate a pregnancy under the limited physical health exception to the state's near-total abortion ban.
A coalition of abortion providers represented by the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union declared Thursday their intent to appeal the ruling because "Hoosiers' lives hang in the balance."
"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," the litigants said.
Last month, Owen Circuit Judge Kelsey Hanlon concluded Senate Enrolled Act 1 (2022) appropriately leaves it to the "reasonable medical judgment" of doctors to determine whether an abortion is necessary "to prevent death or a serious risk of substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function."
While Hanlon said that likely is little comfort to physicians providing exigent obstetrical care in a politically charged environment with their career and liberty potentially at risk, she said it is consistent with the Indiana Constitution and the history of abortion regulation in the Hoosier State.
"Plaintiffs have not shown an instance where an abortion is necessary to treat a serious health condition but would also fall outside of the health and life exception," Hanlon said. "The record in this case demonstrates that medical professionals have proven themselves able to understand and apply the health and life exception's requirements."
State law prohibits abortion in all circumstances except within 10 weeks of fertilization for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, if necessary to prevent serious physical impairment or the death of a pregnant woman, or because of a lethal fetal anomaly.
The Indiana Supreme Court last year affirmed those restrictions enacted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb following the 2022 Dobbs ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court rescinding the national right to abortion established in 1973 in Roe v. Wade.
However, the state's high court, composed of five Republican-appointed justices, also ruled 4-1 that access to abortion is a protected right under the Indiana Constitution when terminating a pregnancy is necessary to preserve a woman's life or protect her from a serious health risk.
Planned Parenthood, once the state's largest abortion provider, filed suit in November 2023 alongside All-Options Inc. and Dr. Amy Caldwell seeking to more precisely define the contours of that health exception.
Hanlon's decision denying the plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction following a three-day trial in May means Hoosier doctors and hospitals must continue figuring out on a case-by-case basis whether a pregnant woman's health is sufficiently impaired to legally terminate her pregnancy.
The judge also found no issues with the Legislature explicitly excluding a woman's mental health as a basis for accessing abortion care through the health exception, nor with the statutory requirement that all Indiana abortions be performed in a hospital or ambulatory surgical center, instead of an abortion clinic, according to court records.
A ruling by a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals is likely to come early next year.
Separately, the Indiana Supreme Court still is weighing whether to hear the attorney general's appeal of an April 4 Court of Appeals decision that found Indiana's near-total abortion ban violates the state's controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening the religious beliefs of Hoosiers — particularly those who do not accept the notion that life begins at conception or whose faith favors protecting the life or health of a living woman over the potential life of a fetus.
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