ACLU sues Indiana over new abortion restrictions News
ACLU sues Indiana over new abortion restrictions

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging Indiana’s new abortion restrictions, which were signed into law by Governor Eric Holcomb on Tuesday.

House Enrolled Act 1211 (the Enrolled Act) bans the dilation and evacuation procedure (D&E), which is the abortion procedure used in the vast majority of second trimester abortions. The ACLU claims that the ban “imposes additional invasive and medically unnecessary procedures prior to the abortion, which are not feasible to ensure demise and which impose a heightened risk to the health of women.” In addition, the enforcement of the Enrolled Act would prevent physicians from providing pre-viability abortions and women from obtaining them.

With respect to the constitutionality of the statute, the ACLU complains that the ban on the D&E procedure will cause an undue burden on the right of women to obtain pre-viability abortions and is an unwarranted invasion of their bodily integrity, therefore violating women’s rights guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Enrolled Act is set to take effect July 1.