Federal judge blocks Indiana ‘abortion reversal’ law
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked an Indiana law that would require doctors to tell women undergoing drug-induced abortions about a disputed treatment for potentially stopping the abortion process.
The ruling came just before the so-called abortion reversal law adopted by Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature was to take effect Thursday. The temporary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon in Indianapolis puts the law on hold while the lawsuit challenging it makes its way through court.
Hanlon ruled that the abortion-rights groups had a “reasonable likelihood” of proving that the requirement would violate free speech rights of abortion providers. He also found that the state had not proven the effectiveness of the reversal process, which involves taking a different medication rather than the second of the two drugs involved in the procedure.
“While the State may require abortion providers to give a woman seeking an abortion certain types of information as part of the informed-consent process, that information must, at a minimum, be truthful and not misleading,” wrote Hanlon, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
Abortion-rights group’s that filed the lawsuit argued that the law’s requirement would confuse patients and increase the stigma associated with obtaining an abortion, while also forcing doctors to provide what they regard as dubious medical information. Medical groups maintain the abortion pill “reversal” process is not supported by science and that there is little information about its safety.
