Decide blocks Indiana abortion ban on non secular freedom grounds By Reuters

(Reuters) – A second Indiana choose on Friday blocked the state from implementing its legislation banning most abortions after Jewish, Muslim and different non-Christian ladies challenged it in a lawsuit.

Marion County Superior Court docket Decide Heather Welch issued a preliminary injunction towards the Republican-backed legislation, which prohibits abortions with restricted exceptions for rape, incest, deadly fetal abnormalities or a severe well being threat to the mom. The plaintiffs have argued that the measure infringes on non secular freedom protected by one other state legislation.

The legislation had already been on maintain, as one other choose in September blocked Indiana from implementing it whereas Deliberate Parenthood and different healthcare suppliers problem it in courtroom.

Indiana turned the primary state to cross a brand new legislation banning abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court docket in June overturned its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized the process nationwide. Different Republican-led states rapidly started implementing older bans.

Welch issued her injunction after a bunch referred to as Hoosier Jews for Alternative and 5 particular person ladies challenged the abortion legislation beneath Indiana’s Non secular Freedom Restoration Act in a case introduced by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU mentioned the plaintiffs represented religions together with Judaism and Islam in addition to “impartial religious perception techniques.”

“The Court docket finds that S.E.A. 1 considerably burdens the non secular train of the Plaintiffs,” Welch wrote, utilizing the formal title of the legislation, in granting the plaintiffs’ movement for a preliminary injunction whereas the problem to its legality proceeds.

“Though some religions consider that human life begins at conception, this isn’t an opinion shared by all religions or all non secular individuals,” the ACLU mentioned in an announcement.