Correction: This story has been updated to correct the attorney general’s first name. We regret the error.
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Supreme Court will decide the fate of the state’s new abortion law.
In an order unveiled Wednesday, the court granted a request to bypass the Court of Appeals and handle the case directly. That request came from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita. The decision means the state’s highest court will assume jurisdiction of the case.
The court declined to immediately lift an injunction blocking the law from being enforced. Special Judge Kelsey B. Hanlon issued the injunction last month after hearing arguments in the case.
The ACLU of Indiana and a group of abortion providers filed a lawsuit seeking to block the new law, which went into effect on Sept. 15 after the legislature passed it during a special session.
Described as a near-total ban on abortion, the law prohibits abortion at all times during pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks post-fertilization, risk to the mother’s health and fetal fatal anomaly.
The case will now proceed as if it had been originally filed in the Supreme Court, which will now take up the issue of the state’s appeal of the preliminary injunction.
The court will hear oral arguments on the injunction on Jan. 19, 2023, at 9 a.m. The argument will be 60 minutes long, divided between all the parties involved.
A separate lawsuit arguing that the law violates Indiana’s religious freedom law is also making its way through the courts.
