FILE - Abortion-rights protesters march between the Indiana Statehouse and the Indiana State Library where Vice President Kamala Harris was meeting with Indiana legislators to discuss reproductive rights in Indianapolis, on July 25, 2022. Abortion providers are asking an Indiana trial court this week to broaden access to abortions under the state’s near-total ban. FILE - A Planned Parenthood sign is displayed on the outside of a clinic during a news conference, Tuesday, Aug.
The plaintiffs say the ban’s exceptions for protecting health are written so narrowly that in practice, many doctors won’t end a pregnancy even when a woman’s condition qualifies under the statute. “The uncertainty caused by the Health or Life Exception’s confusing definition of serious health risk and threats of licensure penalties and criminal prosecution chill Indiana physicians from providing abortions necessary to protect their patients’ lives and health,” the complaint says.
The state has called the providers’ claims “vague and ambiguous” in court filings, and denied that Indiana infringes on any legal rights.