Court says women have 'ability to reason' in upholding block on abortion waiting period

Vic Ryckaert | IndyStar

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A federal appeals court has upheld an injunction blocking an Indiana law that requires women to get an ultrasound and wait 18 hours before seeking an abortion.

A three-member panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a prior court's ruling that the waiting period imposes an "undue burden" on women.

"Women, like all humans, are intellectual creatures with the ability to reason, consider, ponder and challenge their own ideas and those of others," Judge Ilana Rovner wrote in the 51-page ruling. "The usual manner in which we seek to persuade is by rhetoric not barriers."

Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter said the judges were "playing politics" by blocking the law and he hopes the Indiana attorney general's office appeals the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

What you need to know: Indiana has some of the most restrictive abortion laws

"Sadly," Fichter said in a written statement, "many women will proceed with having an abortion without ever seeing the humanity of their unborn babies on display through ultrasound imaging. Abortion providers continue doing everything they can to block women from being fully informed prior to an abortion decision."

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said he is reviewing the decision.

Anti-abortion advocates blamed a rise in Indiana abortions last year, the first since 2009, on U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt's ruling last year that blocked the ultrasound provision. The provision was included in a state law passed in 2016.

The ACLU filed the case on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. They argued an 18-hour wait would force women to take two days off work and pay for additional travel or overnight lodging expenses.

“The ruling affirms that deeply personal decisions about abortion should be made by women in consultation with their doctors, not politicians pursuing an extreme ideological agenda,” Jane Henegar, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, said in a written statement.

ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk called the ruling "a victory for women and another repudiation of the unnecessary and unconstitutional attempts by Indiana politicians to interfere with women’s reproductive rights.”

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at 317-444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.