Planned Parenthood files suit against state

Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the Indiana State Department of Health Thursday, arguing that Senate Enrolled Act 371 is unconstitutional.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky also asserts that SEA 371 legislation singles out one Lafayette health center, according to a press release from PPINK.

SEA 371, which was passed by the 2013 Indiana General Assembly, requires facilities that offer non-surgical abortions meet the same licensing standards as facilities that offer surgical abortions starting Jan. 1, 2014, according to the release.

“The additional restrictions in this new law are in no way related to patient safety,” Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of PPINK, said in the release. “This law is clearly part of a coordinated national effort to end access to safe, legal abortion by trying to shut down Planned Parenthood health care centers, which also provide Pap tests, breast and testicular exams, birth control and STD testing and treatment.”

According to the release, SEA 371 exempts physicians’ offices from the requirements, although physicians can provide people with the same medication prescribed at the Lafayette health center.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller will defend SEA 371, according to a separate press release.

“In fulfilling our duty to defend statutes our legislature passes from legal challenges plaintiffs file, we are defending the authority of the people’s elected representatives to make public policy decisions,” Zoeller said in the release. “When a challenge is brought against a statute it allows the judicial branch to fulfill its role in deciding the new law’s constitutionality. We look forward to respectfully asserting the State’s case.”

PPINK will request that the United States District Court issue an injunction to stop the regulations from taking effect, according to the release from PPINK.

Ken Falk, legal director for American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, said in the release from PPINK, the law poses a significant and unnecessary burden, which violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of privacy, due process and equal protection.

“This piece of legislation is aimed at one non-surgical abortion facility in Indiana, our health center in Lafayette,” Cockrum also said in the release from PPINK. “We have been providing health care for more than 40 years in Lafayette, and we will continue to do so.”

— Matt Stefanski