INDIANAPOLIS (AP) 鈥 Abortion providers are asking an Indiana trial judge this week to broaden access to abortions under the state's near-total ban.
Indiana law allows for abortion in rare circumstances, including when the health or life of the woman is at risk, but only at a hospital.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are asking a Monroe County judge for a preliminary injunction expanding the medical exemptions and blocking the hospital-only requirement. The three-day bench trial before special Judge Kelsey Blake Hanlon began Wednesday with opening arguments and testimony from an OB-GYN who is a plaintiff.
The Indiana Supreme Court in June, ending a broader legal challenge brought by the same plaintiffs, but said the state鈥檚 constitution protects a women鈥檚 right to an abortion when her life or health is at risk.
The plaintiffs say the ban鈥檚 exceptions for protecting health are written so narrowly that in practice, many doctors won鈥檛 end a pregnancy even when a woman鈥檚 condition qualifies under the statute.
According to the complaint, the ban does not account for conditions that may threaten health later in a pregnancy, after giving birth or for conditions that may exacerbate other health problems. The health and life exception allows for an abortion up to 20 weeks into the pregnancy.
The plaintiffs also want women to be able to have abortions if medically indicated for psychological reasons. The current statute explicitly rules out the threat of self harm or suicide as a 鈥渟erious health risk," which is another reason why the plaintiffs say the state's definition is unconstitutional.
鈥淭he uncertainty caused by the Health or Life Exception鈥檚 confusing definition of serious health risk and threats of licensure penalties and criminal prosecution chill Indiana physicians from providing abortions necessary to protect their patients鈥 lives and health,鈥 the complaint says.
Only a few hospitals, largely in the Indianapolis area, provide abortions and usually at a higher cost than at clinics, the complaint says. Doctors prescribing medication must observe the woman swallowing the pills, delaying abortions for patients who don鈥檛 live nearby.
The state has called the providers鈥 claims 鈥渧ague and ambiguous鈥 in court filings, and denied that Indiana infringes on any legal rights.
The challenge was filed in politically liberal Monroe County, home to Indiana University鈥檚 main campus, but Democratic judges handed off the case until it landed before Hanlon, a Republican elected in a neighboring conservative county.
Indiana became the after the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections by in June 2022. The state law also allows exceptions for rape, incest and lethal fetal anomalies in limited circumstances.
Since the ban took effect, abortions in the state have dramatically dropped. According to the latest report from the state health department, 46 abortions were reported in the last three months of 2023, down from 1,724 during the last quarter of 2022.
A separate legal challenge seeks to establish a religious exception to the abortion ban in Indiana. The state attorney general asked the Indiana Supreme Court last week to take up the case after an sided with four residents and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice in April.
