Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita Asks State Supreme Court to Uphold Abortion Ban

The Indiana Supreme Court has already upheld the state’s abortion ban to protect babies from abortions. Now the state’s highest attorney is asking the court again to deny a new request from Big Abortion to block the ban.

As LifeNews reported, all abortion businesses across the state of Indiana stopped killing babies in abortions Wednesday, even though they filed a last-minute attempt to block the state’s abortion ban protecting the lives of babies before birth.

Rokita’s office filed its response to the ACLU-Planned Parenthood appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court for a rehearing of Indiana’s new abortion law. The response urges the Court to deny a rehearing and to certify the law, a necessary step for the law to be in effect.

The state’s response reads in part:

Plaintiffs’ invocation of Roe reveals what this case is about—whether “policy-making responsibility” for abortion should be vested in democratically accountable representatives or “our five-member, unelected Court, which does not have the insti-tutional tools to discern Hoosiers’ divergent views on whether” and when abortion should be legal. Planned Parenthood, 211 N.E.3d at 980. But Roe—an unprincipled exercise of “raw judicial power” by the U.S. Supreme Court that “has embittered our political culture for a half century”—provides a cautionary tale against exercising such raw power here. Dobbs, 142 S. Ct. at 2241 (citation omitted). The Court should not tolerate plaintiffs’ continued attempts to make the judiciary abortion policy czars.”

Once the abortion ban officially takes effect, it will save as many as 9,000 babies every year.

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The 2022 law, Senate Bill 1, was the first to pass after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and prohibits killing unborn babies in abortions. Exceptions are allowed to prevent “serious health risk of the pregnant woman or to save the pregnant woman’s life,” if the child is diagnosed with a “lethal fetal anomaly” or if the mother is a victim of rape or incest; in these cases, the abortions must be performed in a hospital.

Here’s more on the last-ditch effort to stall the law and how Planned Parenthood and abortion facilities are desperately trying to stop it:

Indiana’s six abortion clinics have stopped providing abortions ahead of the state’s near-total abortion ban officially taking effect and as a petition is pending before the state’s high court asking it to keep the ban on hold while legal action continues, clinic officials said Tuesday.

Planned Parenthood’s four Indiana abortion clinics stopped performing abortions Monday in accordance with state guidance that providers received in July alerting them that on or around Tuesday abortion would become illegal in Indiana in clinic settings “with really very, very limited exceptions,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Planned Parenthood division that includes Indiana.

Indiana’s two other abortion clinics have also stopped providing abortions, with one calling it “a dark day for Indiana.”

On Monday — the last day for it to do so — the ACLU of Indiana filed a petition for a rehearing with the high court asking it to keep the ban on hold while it pursues a narrower preliminary injunction in a trial court to address the scope of the ban’s exemption allowing women facing serious health risks to obtain abortions.

That filing delays the certification of the court’s ruling while it considers whether to grant or deny that petition, said court spokesperson Kathryn Dolan. It’s unclear how long it may take the high court to decide the matter, but after rehearing petitions are filed, the opposing party — in this case the state’s attorneys — have 15 days to file a response.

The Indiana Legislature passed the pro-life legislation in August 2022, but pro-abortion groups immediately filed a lawsuit and a judge blocked the law.

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Meanwhile, the number of abortions increased in Indiana as pregnant mothers traveled there from neighboring pro-life states. According to Indiana Right to Life, the state reported 9,529 abortions in 2022.

Mike Fichter, president and chief executive officer of the organization, said the new law means Indiana will no longer be a “final and fatal destination for unborn babies.”

While the law was blocked, Indiana “was essentially open borders on abortion, despite the will of millions of loving and compassionate Hoosiers represented in the passage of SEA 1,” Fichter said earlier this summer.

On June 30, the Indiana Supreme Court lifted a block on the law, and pro-abortion groups confirmed Tuesday that abortion facilities have closed.

“As of today, providers across the state are no longer able to provide abortion services,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthoods in Indiana, according to the Indy Star.

She said Planned Parenthoods will stay open to provide birth control, transgender treatments and other services, but they cannot do abortions because of the law.

Pro-abortion groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), did file a “last-ditch” argument to the Indiana Supreme Court this week asking the court to block the law again, Indiana Public Media reports.

Their argument is based on the court finding the state constitution includes a right to abortion only when the pregnant mother’s health is at risk, which the law includes exceptions for. However, the ACLU claims “the law’s definition of what constitutes a serious health risk is more restrictive than what the Supreme Court said the state constitution might allow,” according to the report.

Indiana is facing several lawsuits challenging its pro-life law, including another by the Satanic Temple making a religious freedom argument. The satanic group believes killing unborn babies in abortions is a religious “ritual” and likens it to communion or baptism for Christians. In 2020, it even raffled off an abortion to raise money for its lawsuits.

Pro-life leaders estimate the law will save about 161 babies from abortion every day.

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