Indiana Supreme Court won’t hear appeal in RFRA abortion case, choosing ‘wait-and-see’ approach

A temporary block of Indiana’s near-total abortion ban will remain in place for just a few women who filed a religious freedom lawsuit challenging the law after a split Indiana Supreme Court chose not to hear an appeal in the case.

Both a trial court and the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s abortion ban likely violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And those decisions temporarily halted the state from enforcing the ban, but only against the few women initially involved in the case.

The state appealed those rulings to the Supreme Court. And in a 3-2 vote, the court opted not to hear the appeal.

Justice Derek Molter wrote that the temporary block on the law has very little effect, since the women involved in the lawsuit aren’t pregnant, nor seeking an abortion.

And he said it’s better for the Supreme Court to wait until the case is more thoroughly argued and decided at the lower court levels.

Justice Geoffrey Slaughter wrote a dissenting view, criticizing what he called the court’s “wait-and-see” approach. He said the Supreme Court should consider the case now and give lower courts more guidance.

The case now returns to the trial court.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.