A U.S. District Court judge has made permanent an injunction blocking enforcement of an Indiana law requiring chemical abortion facilities to maintain the same safety standards as surgical facilities.
Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled December 3 that the law, which changes the definition of ‘abortion facility’ to include any clinic that prescribes abortion drugs, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it holds abortion facilities to a higher standard than regular doctors’ offices that may prescribe the same drugs. However, she did not issue a decision in response to claims by Planned Parenthood that the law violated their Constitutional right to due process.
At the time, Magnus-Stinson stayed her own ruling to give both Planned Parenthood and the state of Indiana time to decide whether to pursue a June trial to debate the due process issue. But both sides said that because she had already ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor on the equal protection issue, a June trial would be a waste of time, and asked Magnus-Stinson to make a final ruling in the case. On Wednesday, the judge made her original decision permanent.
The state can appeal the final ruling to a higher court, but a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said he was not sure whether the state would do so. It is also possible that the Indiana General Assembly could revise the law during this legislative session to address the equal protection issue.
“After conferring with our clients, this action was deemed appropriate and my office will continue to keep our state government clients apprised of developments in this unique and complicated case,” said Attorney General Greg Zoeller in a statement.