Indiana's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the state's ban on abortions except in narrow instances with a 4-1 decision.
The Indianapolis Capital Chronicle reported that the court overturned a preliminary injunction on the ban, allowing it to go back into effect Aug. 1 while leaving time for the plaintiffs in the case to seek a rare rehearing.
"We hold that Article 1, Section 1 (of the Indiana Constitution) protects a woman's right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or to protect her from a serious health risk, the Chronicle reported Justice Derek Molter writing in the ruling on Friday. "But the General Assembly otherwise retains broad legislative discretion for determining whether and the extent to which to prohibit abortions."
The ban has been on hold since September 2022, when the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and others challenged the case in August and won a lower court injunction, the report said.
The new Indiana law comes because of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling allowing abortions nationwide, sending it back to the individual states.
"Now, patients will be forced either to flee the state to access abortion if they have the means, seek abortion outside of the healthcare system, or carry pregnancies against their will with profound medical risk and life-altering consequences," said the plaintiffs, consisting of leaders of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai‘i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, ACLU of Indiana, Whole Woman's Health Alliance, All-Options, the Lawyering Project, and Women's Med Center, in a joint statement following the ruling, the Chronicle reported.
"Despite this setback, we'll keep fighting to restore reproductive rights in Indiana and to help Hoosiers get access to the services they need. Today's decision is not the end of our fight for equitable, compassionate care in Indiana, or the patients in surrounding states who rely on Indiana for access to abortion."
According to the report, the new law restricts abortions to only cases of a fatal fetal anomaly and cases of serious health risk to the mother.
One part of the law says these exceptions are up to 20 weeks, but another part says they can be used anytime. Rape survivors can get an abortion up to 10 weeks post-fertilization, the news outlet reported.
The law also strips abortion clinics of their state medical licenses and provides that only hospitals and hospital-owned ambulatory surgical centers can provide abortions, the report said.
"We celebrate this day — one long in coming, but morally justified," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita's office said in a statement to the Chronicle. "Thank you to all the warriors who have fought for this day that upholds life."