INDIANAPOLIS — The state’s solicitor general is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Indiana’s controversial law on abortion that was recently blocked.
Tom Fisher maintains the 2016 law requiring the “dignified disposal” of aborted fetuses is constitutional, contrary to a ruling by a federal judge in Indianapolis and then upheld by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
“With respect to the requirement that healthcare facilities dispose of fetal remains in a humane and dignified way, namely by way of cremation or burial, the federal circuits are in conflict on whether that is a permissible regulation,” Fisher said.
Fisher and Attorney General Curtis Hill argue the Seventh Circuit panel contradicted an earlier decision in the Eighth Circuit upholding a similar law in Minnesota .
Indiana’s blocked abortion law also made it illegal to get an abortion solely on the basis of the fetus’s race, sex, or disability, such as Down Syndrome.
Planned Parenthood argues restricting abortion on this basis violates Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion in the United States.
“The Supreme Court, I think, has articulated the right to abortion with particular objectives in mind,” Fisher explained. “Namely, the right on whether to have the child or not. Not the right to decide whether you don’t want a child that doesn’t have the characteristics that you like.”
Fisher contends Planned Parenthood and the 7th Circuit are taking the precedent set by Roe v. Wade too far and do not think the Supreme Court would have to overturn any of its precedents in order to rule on the side of the state.
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