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Indiana moves toward expanding religious objection to abortion

Indiana lawmakers are moving closer to allowing nurses, physician assistants and pharmacists to object on religious or other grounds to having any role in an abortion. The Indiana House voted 69-25 on Thursday in favor of the legislation, which would expand the statute for medical professionals who don’t want to perform an abortion or participate in any procedure that results in an abortion.

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Divided 7th Circuit lifts injunction against Indiana fetal-tissue research ban

An Indianapolis judge’s ruling that blocked an Indiana law effectively banning stem cell research derived from aborted fetal tissue was reversed by a divided 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel Thursday. The 2-1 decision is a defeat for Indiana University researchers challenging the ban, and a dissenting judge questioned the state’s motivation and intent behind a law he said threatens IU research into potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.

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Settlement allows anti-abortion ad to run on Lafayette buses

An anti-abortion group’s advertisement depicting a growing fetus is being allowed on public buses in a northwestern Indiana city following the settlement of a free speech lawsuit. Court documents filed Monday show Lafayette’s public bus service, CityBus, agreed to run Tippecanoe County Right to Life’s ad on a bus for up to 16 months.

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Indiana, Ohio leading 6th Circuit appeal supporting law regulating Kentucky abortion clinics

The Hoosier state has filed its second abortion-related appeal this week, this time urging a federal appeals court to uphold states’ authority to regulate abortion clinics. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill joined forces with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to lead a 16-state coalition in favor of a Kentucky law requiring abortion clinics to maintain transfer-and-transportation agreements with local hospitals and ambulance services.

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Indiana GOP seeks abortion ban blocked in 7 other states

Indiana Republicans eager for a rare legal victory in their efforts to restrict abortion rights are seeking to outlaw a second-trimester procedure, hopeful an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court will back a ban that courts have blocked in seven other states.

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Indiana appeals 18-hour ultrasound injunction to U.S. Supreme Court

Indiana is again appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn a preliminary injunction blocking a state abortion law, this one requiring women to get an ultrasound at least 18 hours before the procedure. The provision was included in House Enrolled Act 1337, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2016.

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Indiana, Kentucky join Planned Parenthood’s western alliance

Planned Parenthood’s affiliate overseeing Hawaii and three western states announced Friday that it was adding Indiana and Kentucky, a first-of-its-kind consolidation based not on geography but on reallocating resources to fight new abortion restrictions in the Midwest and South. The arrangement places Indiana and Kentucky under a Seattle-based affiliate that currently oversees clinics in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Washington.

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Rallies at Statehouse show divide over Roe still wide after 46 years

On the 46th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, supporters and opponents scheduled rallies at the Indiana Statehouse, underscoring the deep divide over the ruling that remains more than four decades later. Advocates of reproductive rights gathered on the fourth floor of the Statehouse Tuesday to begin their push for Senate Bill 589, while Indiana Right to Life had a rally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. 

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Nonprofit reapplies to open South Bend abortion clinic

A nonprofit group that had been denied a state license to open a South Bend abortion clinic reapplied for one Thursday instead of challenging the decision in court. Texas-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance reapplied for the license Thursday, avoiding what it feared would be a lengthy legal battle.

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Indiana’s abortion petition relisted at U.S. Supreme Court

Indiana’s petition for a review of its 2016 abortion law is still pending at the Supreme Court of the United States after the justices relisted the Hoosier state’s writ of certiorari for this Friday’s conference. The state is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of a law that limits when a woman may terminate her pregnancy and mandates how fetal remains should be handled.

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Low-key days at Supreme Court may be ending soon

The Supreme Court began its term with the tumultuous confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, followed by a studied avoidance of drama on the high court bench — especially anything that would divide the five conservatives and four liberals. But when they gather in private on Friday to consider new cases for arguments in April and into next term, the justices will confront a raft of high-profile appeals.

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