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INDIANAPOLIS–A federal judge in Indianapolis dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday by the Satanic Temple that challenged Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.
The ruling came from Judge Jane Magnus Stinson.
The Satanic Temple sued the state because they wanted to force the state to allow them to provide mail-order drugs for its members in Indiana to have an abortion. They believed the near-total ban on abortion, which passed in 2022, violated the state’s religious freedom law along with the 5th, 13th, and 14th amendments to the Constitution.
Judge Stinson said the Satanic Temple “failed to meet its burden to prove that there are actual or potential Indiana patients at all.”
The temple has a telehealth clinic that’s based in New Mexico.
The Indiana Supreme Court ruled in June that while the state constitution does create a woman’s right to an abortion to protect her life or health, state lawmakers also have the power to place limits on “abortions that are unnecessary to protect a woman’s life or to protect her from a serious health risk.”
