Choose blocks Indiana abortion ban on spiritual 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 girls challenged it in a lawsuit.

Marion County Superior Courtroom Choose 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 danger to the mom. The plaintiffs have argued that the measure infringes on spiritual 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 court docket.

Indiana grew to become the primary state to cross a brand new legislation banning abortion after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom 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 gaggle referred to as Hoosier Jews for Selection and 5 particular person girls challenged the abortion legislation underneath Indiana’s Spiritual 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 Courtroom finds that S.E.A. 1 considerably burdens the spiritual train of the Plaintiffs,” Welch wrote, utilizing the formal identify of the legislation, in granting the plaintiffs’ movement for a preliminary injunction whereas the problem to its legality proceeds.

“Though some religions imagine that human life begins at conception, this isn’t an opinion shared by all religions or all spiritual individuals,” the ACLU mentioned in a press release.