Judge blocks Indiana abortion ban for women with religious objections

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Marion County Superior Court judge on Thursday granted a permanent injunction preventing Indiana from enforcing its near-total abortion ban against women whose religious beliefs necessitate the procedure.

The ruling finds that the state’s abortion law, adopted after a special legislative session in August 2022, violates Indiana’s 2015 religious freedom restoration law by imposing a substantial burden on the religious exercise of the plaintiffs. Indiana’s abortion law came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, allowing individual states to regulate or prohibit abortion.

The state may now seek to challenge the decision in the Indiana Court of Appeals.

Marion Superior Court 1 Judge Christina R. Klineman made the ruling, which applies to Hoosiers who argue their faiths require or allow abortion access in circumstances not covered by the narrow medical exceptions currently outlined in state law.

The ruling follows more than three years of litigation after the case was first filed in 2022. The court certified the case as a class action, meaning it protects any person in Indiana whose sincerely held relig...