INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s Attorney General is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in his favor over a blocked abortion law.
An injunction by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on a state law requiring parental notice for an underage girl to have an abortion is still in place. Now, the only court that can overturn that ruling is the Supreme Court.
AG Curtis Hill said Indiana’s law is constitutional.
“Nothing in the U.S. Constitution prohibits Indiana from requiring parental notification when an un-emancipated minor is getting an abortion,” Attorney General Hill said. “Even to get a tattoo, a minor in Indiana need parental permission. Quite simply, parents have rights and responsibilities in the care and upbringing of a child.”
The ACLU issued its legal challenge shortly after the law passed in 2017 and several days before it was set to go into effect on July 1 of that year.
“This requirement would impose an undue burden on the recognized constitutional right of young women to obtain an abortion,” said ACLU lawyer Ken Falk back in August. “In some cases, parents aren’t available or would put the woman in serious danger of either physical or emotional harm of blocking the abortion.”
Since it passed in 2017, the law has never gone into effect.
(PHOTO: brianajackson/Thinkstock)
