Whole Women’s Health in South Bend joins lawsuit fighting Indiana’s new abortion laws
SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- Two weeks from Thursday marks the foreseeable end to services provided by the Whole Woman’s Health Clinic in South Bend. Indiana’s new abortion laws are set to go into effect on September 15th, which would put a halt to almost all abortion services across the state.
However, the Whole Woman’s Health Alliance is not going down without a fight; they’re joining the A.C.L.U. in a lawsuit against the state of Indiana in an effort to block the new abortion restrictions from going into effect.
“We’ve never shied away from filing lawsuits when we know that we’re in the right, and in this case, the law that the Indiana Legislature passed is cruel and inhumane,” says Sharon Lau, Midwest Advocacy Director for Whole Woman’s Health Alliance.
Senate Bill 1, the law signed by Governor Holcomb this summer will take effect in the Hoosier state in just two short weeks, placing a near-total ban on abortion. However, a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the A.C.L.U., Planned Parenthood, and the Whole Woman’s Health Alliance is challenging the law and hoping to block the restrictions from being placed on abortion access.
“The lawsuit that we filed argues that there is a right to privacy under the Indiana Constitution that encompasses the right to an abortion,” explains Ken Falk, Legal Director for A.C.L.U. of Indiana.
The lawsuit argues the enforcement of Senate Bill 1 violates the right to privacy for more than 1.5 million people of reproductive age in the state.
“The Indiana Constitution has at its core, these inalienable rights which is what the founders of the Indiana Constitution call them, and that we are protected against government overreach from,” Falk says.
“As soon as the law passed, they started looking at what the Indiana Constitution says and how that meshes with the law that was passed, and they really felt that we could challenge it based on the two criteria that was the right to privacy and equal preventions clause,” says Lau.
Their other worry is for the future of abortion clinics. Under the new law, all surgical abortions must be performed at hospitals, effectively shutting down the women’s care centers like the one on Lincolnway West.
“Clinics perform 98% of all of the abortions in Indiana,” Falk says. “The fact that now women are being told, even if they are able to get an abortion under the extremely limited exceptions that will exist after September 15th, they have to do it in hospitals. That’s a burden on them and that discriminates against the clinics.”
For clinics like Whole Women’s Health, the future is filled with uncertainty.
“For now, abortion is still legal in Indiana and so we are going to continue to see as many patients as we can for as long as we can up until that date. After that, we’ll have to see what happens with the lawsuit,” explains Lau. “Ultimately, the fall-out is going to be that some people lose their jobs and don’t get to do the work that they love to do and supporting the patients.”
Falk says a hearing for the preliminary injunction they filed yesterday should be held soon, and a judge could block the law from taking effect.
More information on the lawsuit: Health Care Providers and Pregnancy Resource Center File Suit to Stop Indiana’s Abortion Ban | ACLU of Indiana (aclu-in.org)