By Dave Andrusko
On Monday, Judge Kelsey Hanlon, who is overseeing a challenge to Indiana’s comprehensive abortion ban, set September 19 as the date for a court hearing , which is four days after the law takes effect. On Friday, two judges recused themselves from hearing the case. Neither judge offered an explanation.
“The lawsuit was filed in southern Indiana’s Monroe County, which includes the liberal-leaning city of Bloomington and Indiana University’s main campus, but two elected Democratic judges from that county declined to handle the case without stating any reasons,” The Associated Press’ Tom Davies reported.
Indiana’s Senate Bill 1 was the first new protective pro-life law passed by a state legislature following the June 24th overturn of Roe v. Wade. The legislature approved the bill during a two-week special legislative session that ended August 5.
“The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the clinics, asked the judge Monday to issue an order before Thursday to temporarily prevent enforcement of the law,” according to Davies. “It argued that allowing the law to take effect ‘will prohibit the overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana and, as such, will have a devastating and irreparable impact on the plaintiffs and, more importantly, their patients and clients’”
The abortion clinics, as is routine in the post-Roe era, argued that Senate Bill 1 “strips away the fundamental rights of people seeking abortion care” in violation of the Indiana Constitution.
The new law “also prohibits abortion clinics from providing any abortion care, leaving such services solely to hospitals or outpatient surgical centers owned by hospitals,” Davies reported.
He added, “Planned Parenthood, which operates four of Indiana’s seven licensed abortion clinics, has said it planned to keep those sites open for other medical services, while those operated by other providers faced possible closure.”
