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Indiana state: abortion clinic sues fetal remains buried law

2020-12-23T18:50:02.406Z


Indiana has a law that requires fetal remains to be buried or cremated after an abortion. A clinic is now taking action against it: The regulation puts women under great pressure.


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Washington Supreme Court

Photo: KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS

An abortion clinic in Indianapolis is suing the US state of Indiana.

The background to the lawsuit is a law approved by the country's Supreme Court last year, according to which fetal remains must be buried or cremated after an abortion.

Clinics are therefore no longer allowed to dispose of the embryo remains with medical hospital waste.

According to the lawsuit, the provisions of the law are against the constitution by imposing a definition of human life on women who may not share the same beliefs.

According to the newspaper "The Indianapolis Star" the lawsuit was filed with the US District Court in Indianapolis - on behalf of the "Women's Med Group" clinic, its owners, two nurses employed there and three women whose identities were anonymized.

The complaint said the law required pregnant women receiving medical assistance for abortion and miscarriage to perform rituals associated with the death of a person.

The regulations "also send the unmistakable message that someone who had an abortion or a miscarriage is responsible for someone's death".

As a result, many patients at the clinic "experienced shame, stigma, fear and anger."

After US Vice President Mike Pence signed the law requiring the burial of fetal remains as governor of the state, the organization Planned Parenthood successfully sued Indiana in 2016.

But the state appealed - and the Supreme Court upheld the law in May 2019, which the judges believed did not contain any restrictions on abortion rights.

Lawyer is optimistic, so is the attorney general

Stephanie Toti is one of the lawyers representing plaintiffs in the current lawsuit.

She told the Indianapolis Star that the judges' response to the previous lawsuit left open the possibility of contesting the state's laws as unconstitutional because they were "trampling on everyone's beliefs."

Meanwhile, Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill said in a statement that he believed the latest lawsuit would fail.

After all, you have already won before the Supreme Court.

He is confident that Indiana's law will stand.

Controversial topic

Hardly any other topic in the United States causes such heated discussions as abortion law.

Time and again, individual states tighten the laws and thus limit the possibilities for legal abortions.

In the summer, for example, the Supreme Court overturned a restrictive Louisiana state abortion law.

The Washington Supreme Court stated

the law on medical permits is unconstitutional, which, according to critics, would have resulted in the closure of abortion clinics in the conservative southern state.

The law would result in too high hurdles for women who wanted to perform an abortion, the judges said.

Enforcement of the law would drastically reduce the number and regional distribution of abortion clinics.

This would make it impossible for many women to have "safe, legal abortions" in the state.

The 2014 law requires abortion doctors in Louisiana to be licensed to a hospital less than 50 kilometers from their practice.

Proponents argue with women's welfare in the event of complications.

Opponents of the law, however, see the text as an attempt to restrict the right to abortion.

It is extremely difficult for doctors to get the required approval.

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wit / AP

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2020-12-23

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