On October 31, 2022, the Thomas More Society, a not-for-profit, national public interest law firm, submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting the State of Indiana, to the Indiana Supreme Court, in Planned Parenthood Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Inc., et al., v. Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, et al. The Thomas More Society is backing the State of Indiana in seeking to uphold its legislatively enacted protections for unborn children, which have been challenged in court by abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

“Nothing in the language, history, or interpretation of the Indiana Constitution supports a right to abortion, especially in light of Indiana’s prohibition of abortion going back to 1835, sixteen years before the relevant part of that constitution was adopted,” explained Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel. “The circuit court’s decision to halt enforcement of Indiana’s new protections for unborn children is unsupported in Indiana law and history.”

The Thomas More Society’s amicus brief argues both that the relevant section of the Indiana Constitution does not create any judicially enforceable rights and that the language cannot provide a basis for abortion rights, based on an analysis of Indiana law and similar provisions in other states’ constitutions. Breen, a former elected representative and Republican floor leader in the Illinois General Assembly, provided analysis to Indiana legislators and testified on the terms of the new abortion law, which was enacted during a recent special session of the Indiana General Assembly.

“This law passes the constitutional litmus test,” stated Breen, pointing out that the language of Indiana’s constitution does not provide courts with an ascertainable standard which could be applied to evaluate the “inalienable rights” claims brought by the Planned Parenthood lawsuit.

The Thomas More Society has retained renowned constitutional law expert Paul Benjamin Linton, author of the seminal textbook on the subject—Abortion Under State Constitutions—to principally author its brief. Read the Brief Amicus Curiae on Behalf of the Thomas More Society in Support of Defendants-Appellants, filed on October 31, 2022, in Planned Parenthood Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Inc., et al., v. Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana, et al., on Appeal from the Monroe County Circuit Court in Indiana Court of Appeals here.

Background

Indiana was the first state to pass a new law banning abortion after the United States Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling decision, turning the responsibility for abortion regulations back to each state.

The Indiana law, which took effect on September 15, 2022, prohibits abortions with certain exceptions for rape, incest, lethal fetal abnormalities, or a serious health risk to the mother. On September 22, 2022, an Indiana circuit court judge blocked the state from enforcing the law while Planned Parenthood challenged it via a lawsuit.

That lawsuit was filed on August 30, 2022, by Planned Parenthood and other abortion vendors against The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana and seven different Indiana County Prosecutors in Monroe County Circuit Court. The abortionists claim that the state’s law passed by the General Assembly in July violates rights, privileges, and protections given under the state constitution.