Religious freedoms tested in Indiana abortion ban case

The Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on whether the state's near-total abortion ban must yield to religious objections under the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The case, brought by anonymous women and Hoosier Jews For Choice, previously won an injunction at the lower court that the state is now trying to overturn.

Solicitor General James Barta argued the ban survives religious-freedom scrutiny and that the plaintiffs' claims are speculative since none have been pregnant during four years of litigation. ACLU attorney Ken Falk countered that two plaintiffs have altered their behavior to avoid pregnancies they could not terminate even when their faith would require it, and noted the state already permits exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies without extending one for religion.

Justices pressed both sides on how a religious exception could be drafted and whether the case resembles the Hobby Lobby precedent on religious objections to insurance mandates. No ruling date was set.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.