Judge schedules abortion lawsuit hearing after law takes effect

(WISH) — A special judge has set a hearing for next week in a lawsuit claiming Indiana’s new abortion law violates the state constitution.

Judge Kelsey Hanlon will hear arguments in the lawsuit Sept. 19, four days after Indiana’s near-total ban on abortion is set to take effect.

The lawsuit, filed in Monroe County by the ACLU of Indiana, claims the abortion ban violates the privacy and equal privileges protections in Indiana’s constitution.

The law, passed this summer by a special session of the General Assembly, bans abortion in Indiana except in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal anomalies or to protect the life of the mother.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has vowed to defend the law, saying there is no constitutional right to an abortion in Indiana.

A second lawsuit claims the new abortion law violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

That lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Indiana in Marion County, argues that the new law violates the beliefs of the Muslim, Unitarian Universalist and Episcopalian faiths, as well as those who follow Paganism.

No hearing has been scheduled in the second lawsuit.