Judge says Indiana’s abortion ban violates state’s religious freedom law
Marion County Superior Court Judge Heather Welch Marion County Superior Court Judge Heather Welch on Friday, Dec. 2, issued a ruling that blocks an Indiana state law banning most abortions there on the basis that the law violates individuals’ religious freedom and temporarily halting enforcement of the abortion ban.
The Monroe Circuit Court enjoined enforcement of the new abortion law, saying that it violates women’s right to privacy as guaranteed by the Indiana Constitution.
The Indiana Supreme Court has accepted jurisdiction in that case and has scheduled oral arguments for January. The ruling came in a case brought by five anonymous women of Jewish, Muslim and other religious faiths and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice, and Judge Welch’s ruling is based on Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed by a GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law on March 26, 2016, by then-Indiana Gov.
Mike Pence, a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom. Those fighting against the RFRA at the time believed (and still do) that the bill was intended to give opponents of equality legal cover for discriminating against LGBTQ people.
