Listen Live
KMJQ Featured Video
CLOSE

A federal judge has blocked an Indiana mandate that would require women to receive an ultrasound at least 18 hours before an abortion, the Associated Press reports.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt issued the ruling on Friday.

As the Associated Press notes, the state was sued by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and the American Civil Liberties Union last July.

They maintained that the mandate was “unconstitutional” and a “burden” for low-income women.

From Associated Press:

Pratt’s ruling said the waiting period ‘creates significant financial and other burdens’ on Planned Parenthood and its patients, particularly low-income women who face lengthy travel to one of only six Planned Parenthood health centers that can offer an informed-consent ultrasound appointment.

The judge, who heard arguments in the case in November, found that Indiana provided no compelling evidence that requiring an ultrasound at least the day before an abortion, rather than on the same day, “makes it any more likely that a woman will choose not to have an abortion.

‘Given the lack of evidence that the new ultrasound law has the benefits asserted by the State, the law likely creates an undue burden on women’s constitutional rights,’ she wrote.”

The ultrasound mandate is a part of a larger abortion restrictions law that took effect July 1, 2016, “a day after Pratt blocked the law’s provision that would have banned abortions sought because of a fetus’ genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome,” the Associated Press says.

Pratt also blocked the law’s provision that would have banned abortions of fetuses with genetic abnormalities, as well as one that would require aborted fetuses to be buried or cremated.

SOURCE: Associated Press

Judge Blocks Mandate Forcing Indiana Women To Get Ultrasounds Before Abortions  was originally published on newsone.com