Indiana Supreme Court Rejects Planned Parenthood Abortion Ban Challenge

Last week, the Indiana Supreme Court voted 4-1 to reject Planned Parenthood’s legal challenge to the state’s near-total abortion ban and leave in place a lower court ruling that found the ban constitutional. The Indiana Supreme Court denied the abortion giant’s request to take the case after the state appeals court upheld a 2024 circuit court decision that ruled the abortion ban’s very narrow exceptions do not prevent doctors from providing appropriate medical treatment for any specific medical conditions.

Indiana’s pro-life law bans most abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest, medical emergencies in the first 10 weeks, or fetal anomalies “incompatible with sustained life” up to 20 weeks. Indiana was the first state to enact an abortion ban after the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, while other states had “trigger” bans passed beforehand that went into immediate effect when Dobbs was handed down.

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Planned Parenthood argued the abortion ban presented several circumstances where the life and health of a woman are at risk due to pregnancy where an abortion would be necessary. However, Monroe Circuit Court Special Judge Kelsey Hanlon found that Indiana’s abortion ban did not infringe on the rights of any patient or medical provider to any protected medical care.

“Plaintiffs have not shown an instance where an abortion is necessary to treat a serious health risk but would also fall outside of the Health and Life Exception,” wrote Judge Hanlon. His ruling further noted that the law’s “Health and Life Exception” permits doctors to exercise “reasonable medical judgment” for determining whether abortion is necessary when a woman’s life is at risk.

In 2023, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the state’s abortion ban from a previous ACLU challenge on behalf of Planned Parenthood which attempted to strike down the law on “women’s rights.” The court ruled that it is “undisputed” that the state constitution empowers the legislature to protect unborn life.

One legal challenge against the law remains stemming from two women who claim they have a “religious right” to abortion. One woman identifies as Jewish while the other does not claim a specific religious tradition but claims “personal religious and spiritual beliefs that guide her life.” In March 2026, a Marion County Superior Court Judge issued a permanent injunction preventing the state from applying the abortion ban against these women. The Indiana Supreme Court granted the state’s appeal and will hear the case in September 2026.

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Indiana’s pro-life law protects innocent unborn lives. Most abortion laws allow physicians to make appropriate medical judgments and decisions to protect both patients—the mother and her unborn child. Abortion harms women physically and emotionally, and there is no right to cruelly kill defenseless children in the womb.”