ACLU of Indiana Wins Temporary Block of State Law Affecting Lafayette Planned Parenthood Center

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Indianapolis – In a victory for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Indiana, a federal judge yesterday issued a ruling temporarily blocking a state law that would have prevented a Lafayette Planned Parenthood health center beginning Jan. 1 from providing non-surgical abortions.

U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson in the preliminary injunction found a reasonable likelihood of success in Planned Parenthood’s claim that the law, passed in the 2013 legislative session, violates its right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment because it treats abortion clinics differently than physicians’ offices that prescribe the same medications.

ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said, “The Judge ruled that the statute is fundamentally irrational because it imposes a requirement that a clinic that only hands out medication must comply with surgical requirements, but a doctor’s office that does exactly the same thing does not.”

“We are pleased women in Lafayette will continue to have the safe and legal option of non-surgical abortion available to them while this case proceeds,” said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. “We continue to believe that the additional restrictions in this new law are in no way related to patient safety. These restrictions are simply part of a coordinated national effort aimed at ending access to safe, legal abortion by trying to shut down Planned Parenthood health care centers, which also provide Pap tests, breast and testicular cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and treatment and annual wellness exams.”

“We are pleased that this ruling will allow our client to continue providing the excellent care that their patients seek in Lafayette,” said Talcott Camp, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

The ruling in Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc., v. Commissioner, Indiana State Department of Health, et al., # 1:13-cv-01335-JMS-MJD, was filed on Nov. 26, 2013 in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division.