The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday vacated judgments invalidating several Indiana laws protecting unborn children and the health of their mothers — handing the Office of the Attorney General and all Hoosiers yet another victory in the fight for life.
The decision involved the ongoing case Whole Woman’s Health Alliance v. Rokita — a legal battle that began with a lawsuit against the state back in 2018.
“Our team has fought long and hard in this case as part of our larger effort to build a culture of life in Indiana,” Attorney General Todd Rokita said. “With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case, it is clear that life is winning. But we will stay relentless in doing the right thing for unborn babies and their mothers’ well-being.”
The lawsuit filed in the Whole Woman’s Health case amounted to a full-scale assault on Indiana’s slate of abortion laws. Although Attorney General Rokita’s team already had prevailed in defending most of those laws, a handful of injunctions remained.
Among other things, laws affected by Monday’s ruling include minimum facilities requirements for surgical and chemical abortion clinics as well as requirements that medical personnel advise women that human physical life begins at fertilization and that “objective scientific information shows that a fetus can feel pain at or before twenty (20) weeks of postfertilization age.”
Attorney General Rokita’s office had previously secured a stay of injunctions barring enforcement of requirements that only physicians may provide medication abortions; that second-trimester abortions may only be performed in hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers; that women considering abortions receive in-person counseling; and that women considering abortions receive in-person examinations. The judgments against these laws have now been formally vacated as well.
The appeals court’s Monday decision is attached.
Last week, Attorney General Rokita announced another historic pro-life legal win after a federal district court granted his motion to lift an injunction on dismemberment abortions, which occur well after an unborn baby is fully developed.
Provided by the Indiana Attorney General’s Office
