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Indianapolis Hearing To Determine South Bend Abortion License

By Barb Anguiano, IPB News / Jennifer Weingart IPB News | Published on in Health, Law

A hearing set for Wednesday and Thursday in Indianapolis will decide if the non-profit Whole Women’s Health Alliance will be granted a license to perform abortions in South Bend.

The provider applied for a license to open an abortion clinic last August. But the Indiana State Department of Health denied the request, citing in a letter -quote- “failure to disclose information about its clinics.” However, the letter does not state what information was left out.

Whole Woman’s Health Alliance operates two other clinics, one in Texas and one in Virginia. The organizations were founded by the same person but are operated separately.

Whole Woman’s Health was the plaintiff in a Supreme Court case from 2015 that found a Texas law was an unconstitutional undue burden on access to abortion. The law required clinics that provide surgical abortions to have facilities comparable to ambulatory surgical centers, and for physicians performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital less than 30 miles away.

In June, the Whole Women’s Health was one of three plaintiffs that filed a civil lawsuit against dozens of Indiana’s abortion restrictions.