Indiana Abortion Law Halted for Violating Non-Christians’ Rights

Indiana’s abortion law has been halted insofar as it violates the rights of a certified class whose members don’t share the Christian religious belief that life begins at conception, a state trial court said.

The state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars a law that substantially interferes with class members’ religious beliefs that a pregnant person’s mental or physical health takes precedence over that of a zygote, embryo, or fetus, said Judge Christina R. Klineman of the Indiana Superior Court, Marion County on Thursday. The state, moreover, didn’t show it had a compelling interest justifying the interference, Klineman said.

She entered judgment before trial for the class and permanently blocked the law’s enforcement, issuing a narrow permanent injunction intended to apply only when an abortion is a necessary exercise of religious beliefs and doesn’t fall within one of the exceptions.

“There is significant public interest in ensuring the religious freedom of all citizens and the State’s position that religious freedom is somehow less important than other exceptions in the Abortion Law puts the court in an untenable position,” Klineman said.

The ruling is a major win for reproductive rights advocates, as the court rejected a law based on a concept of personhood that isn’t shared by all religions.

Hoosier Jews for Choice and two women brought a class action against Indiana’s medical board members, asserting that the law violated the state religious freedom law. The trial court temporarily barred enforcement, and the appeals court affirmed. The Indiana Supreme Court declined review, sending the case back to trial court.

Klineman confirmed earlier rulings that the class had standing to bring the suit and that its religious freedom claims were ripe for review. The plaintiffs alleged they believe—based on religious and moral tenets—that life doesn’t begin until after birth. According to Jewish teachings, a pregnant person’s physical and mental health must be given priority.

Indiana’s law substantially burdens abortions potentially sought as a religious exercise by preventing a person from having one unless it falls within one of three exceptions: the fetus has a lethal fetal anomaly, the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or it’s necessary to save the pregnant person’s life or prevent a serious health risk, Klineman said.

Such people have no alternative means of terminating a pregnancy because their reasons for doing so don’t necessarily fit into one of these exceptions, she said.

While Indiana justified the law by saying it serves a compelling interest in protecting prenatal life, no prenatal life is protected when one of the exceptions applies and person’s reasons for seeking an abortion don’t justify this differential treatment, she said.

Anonymous Plaintiff 1 v. Ind. Members of Med. Licensing Bd. of Ind., Ind. Super. Ct., No. 49D01-2209-PL-031056, 3/5/26.