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The Indiana Daily Student

Planned Parenthood formally files complaint to halt controversial abortion law

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Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky is demanding a federal court halt implementation of Indiana’s controversial abortion law.

The group filed a formal complaint with the United States District Court Southern District of Indiana regarding the law Thursday with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are challenging House Enrolled Act 1337 on the basis it is unconstitutional and violates women’s rights.

“The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly stressed that a woman, not the state, is to determine whether or not to obtain an abortion,” said Ken Falk, legal director for ACLU of Indiana, in a Planned Parenthood press release. “The State of Indiana’s attempt to invade a woman’s privacy and to control her decision in this regard is unprecedented and 
unconstitutional.”

The law outlines several provisions on abortion in 
Indiana.

It requires physicians to tell the woman seeking an abortion human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm and prevents a woman from getting an abortion solely because of the fetus’s race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex or diagnosis or potential diagnosis of the fetus having a diagnosis of a disability.

The law mandates fetal remains must be disposed of through burial or cremation. Women must also wait 18 hours after a mandatory ultrasound before having an abortion.

The law’s prohibition on abortions for specific reasons such as sex and race creates an undue burden on the right to obtain an abortion and violates the 14th Amendment, according to the complaint.

It also violates the patient and physician’s First Amendment rights because “the government cannot compel persons to provide patently unconstitutional information,” according to the complaint.

The formal complaint also says treating the fetal tissue differently from other medical material during disposal is irrational and violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and due process.

The law is another attempt by Gov. Mike Pence to end access to safe, legal abortions, Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, said in an ACLU press release.

“We make sure women receive high-quality health care in a safe, nonjudgmental and unbiased environment,” Cockrum said in the Planned Parenthood release. “That includes abortion. Gov. Mike Pence isn’t a woman, and he isn’t a doctor. He needs to get out and stay out of our doctors’ offices.”

“We will work with the attorney general to defend the law that enhances information expectant mothers receive and enhances protection for the unborn,” Stephanie Hodgin, Pence’s deputy press secretary, said in a press release.

Cockrum responded to the statement in an email, and said Pence will be ready to argue the law’s constitutionality, but its intent was always to shame and confuse women already facing a difficult time.

Cockrum said Planned Parenthood feels confident the case stands on solid ground.

Landmark decisions, such as Roe v. Wade, which established the legality of abortion for women in the U.S., have a long shelf life, she said.

“Those who brought forth HEA 1337 wish to make abortion illegal again,” Cockrum said. “That is not the wish of the majority of Americans. If the lawsuit fails, it will introduce risk to the progression of Hoosier women’s pregnancies because it so egregiously interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.”

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