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ACLU files response to state’s push to enforce abortion law

Lawyers with the attorney general’s office want the high court to overrule a county circuit judge’s decision to approve a preliminary injunction.

INDIANAPOLIS — Monday afternoon, the ACLU criticized the state's attempt to sidestep the Court of Appeals to put the new abortion ban law back in place.

Attorneys representing Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights supporters argued maintaining the state’s old abortion laws is the best course of action for Hoosier women and girls.

“Disturbing the status quo by granting a stay of the preliminary injunction will therefore inflict physiological, psychological, and other harms on already vulnerable Hoosiers and their families,” argued attorneys with the ACLU of Indiana.

Lawyers with the attorney general’s office want the high court to overrule a county circuit judge’s decision to approve a preliminary injunction. The judge’s decision stopped the new abortion law from being enforced. As a result, elective abortions could continue in Indiana. It also meant abortion clinics could continue to operate while the lawsuit over whether the new law was constitutional progressed.

RELATED: Indiana abortion clinics slowly resuming care following injunction

On Sept. 23, a day after the preliminary injunction was approved, the state filed an emergency motion to stay arguing abortion clinics “are taking the lives of the unborn.” The attorney general's office wanted to expedite the process and have the Indiana Supreme Court rule on the matter. An appellate judge denied the request giving the ACLU until Monday afternoon to respond to the state’s motion.

ACLU attorneys argue there is no emergency, in part, because abortions have been allowed in Indiana for the last 50 years. Court documents show attorneys for the plaintiffs favor the appellate court taking up the matter before the high court.

Writing in their response, “as cases progress from the trial court through the Court of Appeals and perhaps eventually to the Supreme Court, issues, arguments, and legal and factual support are developed and refined in a process that improves the quality and legitimacy of the ultimate decision.”

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