Statewide — Attorney General Curtis Hill announced that Planned Parenthood has conceded defeat in a lawsuit that challenged an Indiana law requiring ultrasounds at least 18 hours before women undergo abortions.
The concession was the result of Planned Parenthood’s opening of a new clinic in Fort Wayne that will provide the ultrasounds required by the law. Planned Parenthood has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the ultrasound requirement provided that Indiana refrains from enforcing it until Jan. 1, 2021, giving Planned Parenthood time to train staff at its Fort Wayne clinic to operate ultrasound equipment. The concession makes clear that if anything threatened women’s ability to obtain abortions, it was Planned Parenthood’s own business decisions, not the challenged law, an argument made by the State.
After the federal district court and the court of appeals upheld a preliminary injunction against Indiana’s law, the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2 vacated the federal appeals court’s decision and sent the case back for further consideration in light of another recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, June Medical LLC v. Russo.
