Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against an Indiana law requiring doctors to report “abortion complications” to the state, continuing a trend that began when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion.
On Monday, Judge Richard Young of the Indiana Southern District Court entered an order dismissing the case that challenged Senate Enrolled Act 340, a law passed in 2018 that requires physicians to report certain abortion “complications” to the Indiana Department of Health, which would then file an aggregate report with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite the ongoing litigation, SEA 340 has been in effect since late last year following an August 2021 ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the law.
“We are making strong and steady progress in protecting women’s health and safeguarding unborn children,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a Tuesday news release announcing the dismissal. “Day by day, we are building a culture that respects the lives and well-being of all Hoosiers.”
SEA 340 requires abortion clinics to report 25 complications listed in state law to the Department of Health, such as uterine or cervical perforation, blood clots, shock or coma, among others.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the organization formerly known as Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky — now known as Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky — challenged the legislation in 2018 as unconstitutionally vague and as a violation of the equal protection clause.
The Indiana Southern District Court first entered an injunction against SEA 340 in July 2018. The law was subsequently amended in 2019 to include the list of 25 reportable conditions, but the amended version was also struck down.
Then-Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill appealed to the 7th Circuit, which split in its August 2021 ruling that the law was not unconstitutionally vague. Judge Diane Wood dissented, calling the law “incomprehensible.”
Fast forward to June 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the question of abortion back to the states. Current AG Rokita began asking federal courts to lift injunctions against various Indiana abortion laws that had been enjoined under Roe — an effort that has proven successful.
On Monday, the parties to the abortion-complications case entered a stipulation to dismiss the case without prejudice.
“I am grateful to our team for their persistence over many years in defending good laws protecting the sanctity of life and the health of women,” Rokita said in the news release. “We will keep pressing onward in this important work.”
The dismissal comes as the state’s abortion regulation landscape is in flux.
The Indiana General Assembly earlier this month passed legislation banning all abortions in the state except in cases of rape or incest before 10 weeks postfertilization, to protect the life and physical health of the mother, or if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed off on the legislation.
The law is set to take effect Sept. 15, and questions remain about what will happen on that date to previous abortion regulations that are just now taking effect after injunctions were lifted this summer.
Meanwhile, the ACLU of Indiana and Planned Parenthood have filed a lawsuit this week to block the new abortion law, Senate Enrolled Act 1. The lawsuit argues the abortion ban violates the right to privacy in the Indiana Constitution.
“Implicit in this right, is the right for a woman to make medical decisions regarding her own reproductive health,” ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said in a news release. “… Deeply private, personal, and unique decisions about reproductive health should be made by women in consultation with their doctors. Whether Indiana elected officials personally agree with abortion access or not, it is not up to the government to make these decisions for Hoosiers.”
But during a virtual press conference on Thursday, Rokita said the Indiana Constitution says nothing about the right to an abortion.
“The left can’t stand a culture of life,” Rokita said during the press conference, calling the ACLU and Planned Parenthood “leftist organizations.” He added, “The ACLU and Planned Parenthood push back every time there is a win for liberty, but we will not back down in the fight to protect future generations.”
Rokita called the press conference — which was livestreamed on Facebook — to “discuss his work to protect Hoosiers and defend life.” He said he hosted the press conference virtually to communicate directly with the public and to allow members of the public to hear from him without the “filter” and “bias” of the media.
All questions during the press conference were submitted to the Office of the Indiana Attorney General’s press email address. Members of the public and the media were allowed to submit questions.
One question asked whether Rokita supports the exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother in the new abortion law. The AG responded that Hoosiers know he is staunchly anti-abortion and, thus, does not personally support exceptions, but he added that his job as attorney general is to defend the law as written.
He also dismissed concerns that the new abortion law will make it harder for Hoosier employers to attract or retain workers, saying he travels “around the entire state” and has not heard that concern.
Indiana Lawyer and other news organizations submitted questions about the status of the investigation into Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana abortion doctor who made headlines for performing an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was not able to obtain an abortion in her home state.
Bernard discussed the Ohio girl’s case with the Indianapolis Star, and the story quickly made national headlines. Rokita joined that conversation by appearing on a Fox News program and announcing that he was investigating Bernard’s actions.
The AG said he was specifically investigating Bernard for potentially failing to follow abortion-related reporting and privacy laws. Multiple news outlets have reported that Bernard complied with the requisite reporting laws, while her employer, IU Health, has said she did not violate any privacy laws.
Bernard’s attorney, law professors, and other high-profile Hoosier lawyers have publicly criticized Rokita’s public comments, with one former law dean calling for a disciplinary investigation into his conduct regarding Bernard.
But the AG has doubled down, writing an op-ed blaming the media for misquoting him.
Addressing the investigation during Thursday’s press conference, Rokita again defended his actions and said the investigation into Bernard remains ongoing. He said the investigation was spurred by “public concern,” but a follow-up question from Indiana Lawyer about the nature of that concern was not read to the AG by his communications staff, which was reviewing the questions submitted via email.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.