The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky on Thursday filed suit against the state of Indiana, claiming an abortion restriction recently signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the state's Southern District against the Indiana State Department of Health, prosecutors in Monroe County and three other counties and the state's medical licensing board, also asks the Court to block enforcement of the law, which is set to go into effect July 1 and bans abortions sought because of genetic abnormalities and mandates an aborted fetus be buried or cremated.
The restriction makes Indiana's abortion laws among the most severe in the nation, and the ACLU of Indiana and PPINK claim it violates due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment as well as free speech rights as provided under the First Amendment.
Jane Henegar, executive director of ACLU of Indiana, said while proponents of the law claim it's intended to protect the unborn from discrimination, "that isn't what this law is about."
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