Abortion law in place

INDIANAPOLIS -- Attorneys for Indiana abortion providers plan to appeal a judge's decision not to extend a court order that blocks a state law requiring women to receive in-person counseling before an abortion.\nMarion Superior Court Judge Gerald Zore announced his ruling Wednesday during the second day of testimony about a challenge to the law.\nThe appeal of the ruling on the temporary restraining order will likely be made to the Indiana Court of Appeals sometime in the next week, said Janet Crepps, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights.\nLater, in a meeting with the judge, all parties agreed to give abortion providers a few more days before requiring them to comply with the law, Crepps said.\n"Even though the judge is not extending the temporary restraining order, everyone agreed that in this instance common sense should prevail," Crepps said. "Next week, we would see the clinics in compliance."\nThe law, passed in 1995, requires abortion providers to tell women about medical risks and alternatives to abortion at least 18 hours before the procedure and to give the information in person. Currently, women get the information over the phone.\nBetty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana, said the organization worked hard to prove the law is a burden on lower-class women.\n"The suggestion that counseling can only be made face to face introduces the double challenges of transportation, child-care and job security. More that 61 percent of women who come here to have abortions already have kids," Cockrum said.\nLawyers from the state attorney general's office had asked Zore to deny the preliminary injunction, saying the clinic operators had failed to prove that allowing the law to go into effect would cause harm.\n"I'm not surprised, in the sense that we always felt strongly about our case," said Tom Fisher, a deputy attorney general.\nCourt challenges have kept the law from taking effect. The law is being challenged in state court after the U.S. Supreme Court in February refused to hear a challenge to the rule.\nStaff writer Julia Blanford contributed to this article.