A U.S. district judge in Indiana has issued a preliminary injunction against three parts of the state’s new abortion law, one of which requires parental consent for minors seeking an abortion. The bill would have required judges to determine whether or not it is in the best interest of each minor in question to notify her parents prior to undergoing an abortion procedure.
The law, Senate Enrolled Act 404, was set to go into effect tomorrow, but after Indiana governor Eric Holcomb signed the bill in April, the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against it on behalf of Planned Parenthood.
In its lawsuit, the ACLU claimed that the legislation “imposes new burdens on a young woman’s access to abortion and on her health care providers, in violation of often reaffirmed constitutional rights.”
“When it comes to our children, while parents or others entrusted with their care and well-being have the lawful and moral obligation always to act in their best interests, children are not bereft of separate identities, interests and legal standing,” Barker wrote in her opinion issued Wednesday.
According to the pro-abortion research group the Guttmacher Institute, 37 states currently have some kind of parental-notification or -consent law on the books. Such laws were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which decided, in part, that states could implement restrictions on abortion as long as they didn’t place an “undue burden” on women seeking an abortion.
Pro-life groups are urging Indiana attorney general Curtis Hill to appeal the injunction. If the state wishes to appeal, Hill must do so within the next 30 days.