Judge Blocks Indiana Law That Bans Abortions Based on Genetic Abnormalities

News Staff : Jul 1, 2016
CBN News

"We must go forward. We will not stop — not just working to make abortion illegal, but to make it unthinkable." — Penny Nance, Concerned Women for America

(Indianapolis, IN) — [CBN News] A federal judge blocked an Indiana law Thursday that bans abortions on babies with genetic abnormalities. (Screengrab via CBN News)

The measure, which Gov. Mike Pence signed into law in March, says abortions for reasons like Down syndrome, race, sex, or ancestry were illegal.

But Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a lawsuit to stop the law from taking effect on Friday.

During the June 14 court hearing, Ken Falk, legal director for Indiana's ACLU chapter, represented Planned Parenthood in the case. Falk argued the law was unconstitutional and violated women's rights.

Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher argued that the law is not about violating women's rights but about "preventing discrimination" against unborn babies solely because of their genetic make-up.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood, saying "The law was inconsistent with the notion of a right rooted in privacy concerns and a liberty right to make independent decisions."

Judge Pratt's ruling is the latest in a series of setbacks for the pro-life community. (Screengrab via CBN News)

A federal judge in Florida is blocking a law that limited public funding to abortion clinics in that state. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that the law was unconstitutional.

"The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that a government cannot prohibit indirectly - by withholding otherwise-available public funds - conduct that the government could not constitutionally prohibit directly," Hinkle wrote in his decision..

He also struck down a provision of the law that added health inspections and required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges to nearby hospitals, to improve women's safety.

These state abortion law rulings come days after the Supreme Court ruled against a Texas law that required abortion clinics to meet certain health and safety standards.

After Monday's landmark Supreme Court ruling, Planned Parenthood vowed they would launch a campaign against the abortion laws in every state.

"These unconstitutional laws punish women, and we will bring them down, law by law and state by state," Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards said in a statement. "We have been fighting these restrictions on all fronts for years, organizing in the field, building for this moment — and now the wind is at our backs."

But many abortion advocates say the fight is not over.

"We must go forward," said Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America. "We will not stop — not just working to make abortion illegal, but to make it unthinkable."

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