On Tuesday, a federal judge from United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana struck down a variety of Indiana abortion laws, including the state’s sweeping ban on telemedicine abortion consultations, ruling them “unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, et al. v. Rokita began in 2018 as Whole Woman’s Health Alliance filed a lawsuit against a comprehensive list of regulations surrounding abortion. The lawsuit challenged several pieces of legislation, including mandatory waiting periods for women seeking an abortion and mandatory counseling.
U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued injunctions against several of Indiana’s abortion-restriction laws, including legislation requiring face-to-face consultations with a doctor prior to an abortion and the outlaw of second-trimester abortions outside of hospitals and surgery centers. Additionally, Barker ruled against Indiana laws requiring that women seeking abortions are told that human life begins at conception and that a fetus might feel pain at or before 20 weeks.
“For the reasons explicated in the following decision, based on the Court's thorough review and consideration of all evidence presented at trial, the following provisions are ruled unconstitutional, and their enforcement permanently enjoined: The Telemedicine Ban, the In-Person Examination Requirement, the Physician-Only Law as it relates to the first-trimester provision of medication abortion, the Second-Trimester Hospitalization Requirement, and the Mandatory Disclosures and Facility Requirements identified herein,” Barker wrote in the court documents.
In the court documents, Barker cited Dr. Daniel Grossman, an outspoken pro-abortion advocate, several times, as he served as the “Plaintiffs' expert witness specializing in gynecology, abortion care, and public health.”
In a statement, Amy Hagstrom Miller, the president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, praised Barker’s ruling. “This is a tremendous victory for abortion rights - just when Hoosiers and this entire country need it most,” Miller said in the statement. “Providing abortion care in Indiana has not been easy, and Whole Woman’s Health of South Bend is grateful to the courts for upholding the right to evidence-based abortion care by overturning these unjust and burdensome regulations.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita responded to the ruling in a Facebook post. “Today’s mixed decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Rokita only strengthens our resolve to keep fighting for the lives of unborn children and the health of mothers,” Rokita said in the post. “We will continue to fight to defend Indiana’s commonsense abortion laws and to build a culture of life in Indiana.”
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