Indiana Attorney General Appeals “Absurd” Decision That Killing Babies is a Religious Right

As everyone knew he would, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has appealed Marion County Judge Christina R. Klineman’s “absurd” ruling that the state’s 2022 abortion law violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“We disagree with the court’s decision and have already appealed,” an offices spokesman said. “As we have with every challenge against our pro-life law, we’ll continue fighting to protect the lives of the unborn.”

Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter said, “We are encouraged by Attorney General Todd Rokita’s immediate move to appeal this injunction.” He called the 17-page decision “a perversion of the law’s intent.”

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“Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act was never intended to equate taking the life of an unborn child with religious expression in our state,” he said. Fichter predicted if Judge Klineman’s decision is upheld, “it will be exploited so anyone claiming a spiritual belief, even if personal and non-theistic, can justify taking a child’s life.”

Writing on X, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said that the ruling was “outrageous.”

“Indiana’s abortion law serves the purpose of protecting unborn life and should be upheld,” he said.

For her part, Judge Klineman wrote, “The state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars a law that substantially interferes with class members’ religious beliefs that a pregnant person’s mental or physical health takes precedence over that of a zygote, embryo, or fetus.”

But writing for National Review Online, Ramesh Ponnuru responded that Judge Klineman

first finds that banning abortion places a burden on the exercise of religion — even though none of the plaintiffs even asserts a religious duty to have any abortion that the state has forbidden. Then she finds that the state’s exceptions to its abortion law, such as for pregnancies that result from rape, mean that its interest in protecting prenatal life is not compelling.

This is absurd

Indiana’s 2022 law “permits abortion up to 10 weeks gestation only in instances of rape or incest and up to 20 weeks gestation only in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or when the mother’s life is in danger from specific medical issues,” according to Kate Scanlon. “The law also requires that abortions take place at a hospital or a hospital-owned surgery center.”

The next step is for the Indiana Court of Appeals to weigh in.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.

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