Indiana Abortion Ban Blocked In Court—Here’s Where State Lawsuits Stand Now

Topline

Indiana’s abortion ban was blocked in court on Thursday only a week after it first went into effect, as abortion providers file a string of lawsuits aiming to halt state-level bans that went into effect or were enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Abortion rights protesters protest against the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade in Los … [+] Angeles, California, on June 24.

Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

Key Facts

Indiana: A state judge blocked the state’s near-total ban on abortion from staying in effect while a lawsuit against it moves forward, after the law was enacted in August and went into effect September 15, ruling there’s “reasonable likelihood” that the law violates the Indiana Constitution.

Ohio: A state judge has temporarily paused Ohio’s six-week abortion ban through at least October 12 until he can issue a more lasting decision on whether to block the law—after the state Supreme Court previously rejected a request to halt the ban on July 1—after courts initially let the six-week ban take effect hours after Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24.

West Virginia: A state judge blocked the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban on July 18 as the litigation against it moves forward, as the judge sided with abortion providers who argued the 19th century law conflicted with the state’s more recent abortion measures—but abortion is now banned again in the state after lawmakers passed a new near-total abortion ban and Gov. Jim Justice (R) signed it into law on September 16.

North Dakota: A state judge issued an injunction that blocked the state’s abortion ban from taking effect on August 25—even though the state’s only abortion clinic, which brought the lawsuit, has already moved out of state—after previously issuing a temporary restraining order in July that delayed the law’s enforcement.

South Carolina: The state Supreme Court temporarily blocked its six-week abortion ban on August 17, siding with abortion providers who argued the law violated the state’s Constitution, though lawmakers are now trying to pass new legislation that would still likely ban abortion only after six weeks, but tighten restrictions.

Georgia: A state Superior Court judge declined to block the state’s six-week abortion ban on August 15 while the litigation against it proceeds, rejecting a request from abortion providers and advocates who sued to overturn the law after a federal judge allowed it to take effect in July.

Idaho: The Idaho Supreme Court ruled August 13 that the state’s trigger law outlawing nearly all abortions could take effect August 25 as abortion providers’ litigation against it moves forward—though a federal judge then separately limited the trigger law to allow abortions in the case of all medical emergencies—and also allowed a six-week ban to take effect that allows for lawsuits against anyone who aids and abets an abortion.

Wyoming: A state judge issued a preliminary injunction on August 10 blocking the state’s trigger law, which banned all abortions in the state with exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies, after previously pausing the law for just two weeks, siding with abortion providers who argued the law was overly vague and ruling it “lacks any guidance” for providers who are unsure if a patient they have can legally get an abortion.

Kentucky: A state judge issued a restraining order on June 30 that blocked both the state’s total ban on abortion and a separate ban on the procedure after approximately six weeks, and though a court first extended the block on July 22, an appeals court then ruled on August 1 that the ban can take effect again as the challenge moves forward.

Louisiana: The state was the first to have its abortion trigger law blocked in court on June 27 and the law has gone in and out of effect since; it briefly went back into effect on July 8 before being blocked again, and an appeals court has now reinstated the law.

Utah: The state’s trigger law was blocked on June 27 after taking effect hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling, as abortion providers argued the law violated the state Constitution, and a judge ruled on July 11 that it should remain blocked as the case moves forward.

Mississippi: State Judge Debbra K. Halford denied a request on July 5 to block both the state’s trigger law banning all abortions and a six-week abortion ban, ruling she didn’t believe the abortion providers’ lawsuit would ultimately succeed and they hadn’t sufficiently shown the bans cause them “irreparable harm,” and the abortion clinic that brought the lawsuit dropped their challenge because the clinic has closed.

Texas: A state judge issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban from staying in effect on June 28—allowing abortions to at least temporarily resume until Texas’ trigger ban took effect later in July—but the Texas Supreme Court then overruled that order on July 1, once again banning abortion in the state.

What To Watch For

More state court rulings and lawsuits. Abortion providers and Democratic politicians have also filed lawsuits against abortion bans in Wisconsin and Oklahoma that have taken effect or are scheduled to take effect in the absence of Roe, and those challenges remain pending. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) has also asked a state court to put a six-week ban back in effect, teeing up a legal battle over that law.

Crucial Quote

“Every additional day, every additional hour that we can block a ban is making a huge difference for the patients in the waiting room,” Nancy Northup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told reporters on July 1, saying providers’ immediate priority is to preserve abortion access in states “for as long as we can.”

Contra

While state courts are increasingly blocking abortion bans, federal courts are allowing other states’ bans to take effect. In addition to Ohio, Georgia and South Carolina, judges in Tennessee, Indiana, North Carolina and Alabama have so far allowed state-level bans and restrictions on the procedure to be reinstated, after previously blocking them when Roe was still the law of the land and abortion was legal on the federal level. The federal judge in Idaho’s ruling did partially block that state’s trigger law in response to a lawsuit from the Biden Administration, which argued it conflicted with federal law, but only as the law pertains to abortions during medical emergencies.

Tangent

A state judge in Florida briefly blocked the state’s 15-week abortion ban, which was enacted and challenged in court prior to the Supreme Court’s decision. The law took effect on July 1 until Leon County Judge John Cooper’s written order was issued on July 5, even though Cooper had said during a hearing June 30 he intended to block the law. Cooper’s order was only in effect for a few minutes, however, as the Florida government immediately appealed the decision, which automatically freezed Cooper’s order until another decision can be issued on whether or not it should be put back in effect. That means the 15-week ban is still in effect for now. Florida Republicans passed the law despite the fact the Florida Supreme Court has upheld abortion rights in the state constitution, and abortion rights advocates fear the state court will overturn that precedent and give the state license to ban abortion.

Chief Critic

State officials whose laws are being challenged have stood by their abortion bans. “We are fully prepared to defend these laws in our state courts, just as we have in our federal courts,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement, accusing the abortion providers of using “scare tactics,” and Utah AG Sean Reyes told the Salt Lake Tribune before the state’s abortion law was blocked that his office “will do its duty to defend the state law against any and all potential legal challenges.”

Key Background

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, giving states license to fully ban the procedure as justices declared the landmark 1973 decision “egregiously wrong.” The court’s ruling triggered 13 states’ abortion bans, and the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute projects 26 states will ultimately ban or severely restrict the procedure. While abortion is now able to be outlawed under federal law, abortion providers’ focus is to now target the bans in state courts, arguing that even if the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect abortion rights, they are still protected under state Constitutions and thus can’t be banned despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.

Surprising Fact

While most state lawsuits have argued the abortion trigger bans violate state constitutions and the civil rights they provide for, Louisiana abortion providers had to instead only argue the state’s laws are unlawfully vague because they can’t make other arguments under the state constitution. Louisiana voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 stating, “Nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion”—one of four states whose constitutions explicitly do not protect abortion rights, along with Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia.