Indiana's top court hearing challenge to state abortion ban

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The fate of Indiana’s Republican-backed abortion ban on Thursday goes before the state Supreme Court as it hears arguments on whether it violates privacy protections under the state constitution.

Abortions have been allowed to continue in the state since a county judge blocked the law from being enforced in September, a week after the law approved in August had taken effect.

Indiana became the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

The arguments being made before the Indiana justices come after the top courts in two other conservative states split this month on similar state constitutional challenges to their abortion bans, with South Carolina’s ban being struck down and Idaho’s being upheld in the latest examples of the patchwork of state laws now in place.

The Indiana ban, which eliminated the licenses for all abortion clinics in the state, includes exceptions allowing abortions at hospitals in cases of rape and incest, before 10 weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.

Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon, a Republican, blocked the Indiana ban from being enforced in the lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators, writing that “there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution” and that the clinics could prevail in the legal challenge.

The five-member Supreme Court, all of whom were appointed by Republican governors, is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday morning from the state attorney general’s office and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which...