Indiana judge weighing bid to block state's new abortion ban
A top state lawyer has derided arguments that Indiana’s new abortion ban violates the state constitution, saying that Indiana had such laws in place when the constitution was drafted in 1851 and that opponents of the ban are trying to invent a state right to privacy
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A top state lawyer derided arguments that Indiana’s new abortion ban violates the state constitution, saying Monday that opponents of the ban are trying to invent a state right to privacy.
A judge heard arguments for about an hour in a Bloomington courtroom on a request from abortion clinic operators to block the Indiana abortion ban that went into effect on Thursday.
Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon, who is the special judge in the case, didn’t make an immediate decision but said she would issue a ruling “expeditiously.”
State Solicitor General Thomas Fisher told the judge that “too many leaps” were needed in legal arguments that abortion was protected under an Indiana constitutional right to privacy when that word isn’t mentioned in the document. He argued that a ban was in place when the constitution was drafted in 1851.
