INDIANA – Not wasting any time, Attorney General Todd Rokita and his team took new actions this week to protect women and unborn children following the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Like most Hoosiers, I believe in building a culture of life in Indiana,” Attorney General Rokita said. “That means protecting the lives of unborn babies and safeguarding the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of their mothers. I’ll do everything in my power to advance this mission.”
This week, Attorney General Rokita asked courts to lift injunctions against several Indiana abortion laws following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey rulings. The rejection of those woefully misguided precedents means states now have much greater authority to enact and enforce laws regarding abortion.
The Indiana laws for which Attorney General Rokita is asking courts to lift injunctions include:
- a ban on discriminatory abortions sought specifically because of the unborn child’s race, sex, or disability
- a ban on dismemberment abortions, in which living unborn children are dismembered piece by piece
- a requirement that parents be notified when a court approves an abortion for a minor child without parental consent (barring extenuating circumstances such as reason to believe such notification could endanger the child)
In addition, Attorney General Rokita already has obtained a court-filed stipulation that halts expansion plans by abortion providers Whole Woman’s Health Alliance and Planned Parenthood in the cities of South Bend and Evansville, respectively.
“Indiana has a long history of defending life,” Attorney General Rokita said, “and the Supreme Court has recognized these contributions. Indeed, the Dobbs decision expressly cited multiple Indiana cases — such as our battles to outlaw discriminatory abortion and require respectful disposition of the bodies of aborted babies.“
The Dobbs decision also cited Indiana’s work to defend parental notice and sustain an informed-consent waiting period, among other issues.
Attached are legal documents pertaining to this week’s filings.
