On Friday, the Indiana Supreme Court granted the motion of the state Attorney General and skipped over the Indiana Court of Appeals in order that Todd Rokita can quickly challenge Marion Superior Court Judge Christina R. Klineman’s decision. Oral arguments are set for September 10, according to an order signed by Chief Justice Loretta Rush.
Indiana’s highly protective 2022 law “permits abortion up to 10 weeks gestation only in instances of rape or incest and up to 20 weeks gestation only in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or when the mother’s life is in danger from specific medical issues,” according to Kate Scanlon. “The law also requires that abortions take place at a hospital or a hospital-owned surgery center.”
The Indiana Supreme Court “has granted our motion for immediate transfer, sending our appeal of a Marion County judge’s permanent injunction in a challenge to Indiana’s pro-life laws straight to the state’s highest court,” Rokita said in a post on X. “The lower court’s decision fundamentally misunderstands religious liberty by claiming it confers a right to abortion. We look forward to continuing our defense of Indiana’s pro-life laws in front of the Indiana Supreme Court.”
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Background
On March 4, Judge Klineman held that the state’s 2022 abortion law–Senate Enrolled Act 1– violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Judge Klineman wrote, “The state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars a law that substantially interferes with class members’ religious beliefs that a pregnant person’s mental or physical health takes precedence over that of a zygote, embryo, or fetus.”
But, as Ramesh Ponnuru noted on National Review Online, Judge Klineman
first finds that banning abortion places a burden on the exercise of religion — even though none of the plaintiffs even asserts a religious duty to have any abortion that the state has forbidden. Then she finds that the state’s exceptions to its abortion law, such as for pregnancies that result from rape, mean that its interest in protecting prenatal life is not compelling.
This is absurd.
In their 19-page brief, Rokita successfully argued
“In view of the important issues this case presents, the Court should grant immediate transfer. The Court of Appeals has already expressed its views on the principal issues in this case, and on summary judgment, the trial court effectively adopted the Court of Appeals’ analysis as its own. Therefore, the time is ripe for this Court to decide whether the Court of Appeals’ original analysis is correct. Neither the law nor the public would benefit from delaying this case’s final resolution.”
When Rokita announced his appeal in early March, Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter said, “We are encouraged by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s immediate move to appeal this injunction.” He called the 17-page decision “a perversion of the law’s intent.”
“Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act was never intended to equate taking the life of an unborn child with religious expression in our state,” he said.
Fichter predicted if Judge Klineman’s decision is upheld, “it will be exploited so anyone claiming a spiritual belief, even if personal and non-theistic, can justify taking a child’s life.”
