A federal judge Wednesday temporarily halted a portion of Indiana’s restrictive new abortion law. The law would have required judges who authorize abortions in minors to notify the parents of the minor who sought the order.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union sued Indiana in May to stop the law. The ruling is a temporary injunction, not a permanent reversal of the legislation. In her order, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker argued that "when it comes to our children, while parents or others entrusted with their care and wellbeing have the lawful and moral obligation always to act in their best interests, children are not bereft of separate identities, interests, and legal standing." Barker is a Ronald Reagan appointee.
Indiana’s Parental Notification Law
Under current Indiana law, minors seeking abortions must either receive parental permission or seek a judicial override. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that parental notification laws must contain this exception, which protects girls who have abusive, negligent, or otherwise problematic parents.
The new law would also have required judges to weigh the benefits of informing a girl’s parents of her intent to seek an abortion—even if the judge refuses to authorize the abortion. In most cases, the judge would be required to notify the parents, directly undermining the intent of a judicial override.
This, the plaintiffs in the case argued, has a chilling effect on abortion rights. It would also create a highly subjective standard for whether and when to notify a girl’s parents. Girls who seek judicial overrides of parental consent laws often do so because of family abuse or other safety concerns.
The law allows courts to issue temporary injunctions halting new laws from going into effect when plaintiffs can show the potential for irreversible or substantial harm.
Do Republicans Want Girls Seeking Abortions to be Abused?
A spokesperson for the Indiana attorney general argues that the law is important for “protecting pregnant minors.” But allowing girls to judicially override parental consent laws is vital to protecting them. Republicans continue to pretend that all girls live in ideal, healthy families. Therefore girls seeking parental consent overrides are simply miscreants who must be put back in their place.
The data suggests otherwise. Estimates of incest are hard to come by, because it’s a notoriously underreported crime. But most research suggests about 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused. Most of that abuse occurs in the family. This means that some girls seeking abortions may be pregnant thanks to abuse within the family. Indiana’s law, then, would force a judge to notify the girl’s abusers of the outcome of the abuse.
Even when incest isn’t a factor, child abuse is common. The United States has one of the highest rates of child abuse in the world. Many pregnant girls do not come from loving families. Some get pregnant in an attempt to escape abusive families. Notifying these girls’ parents of their intent to seek an abortion could sentence them to horrific abuse, and maybe even to death. In 2015, an estimated 1,610 children died at the hands of abusive parents.
Of course, this is precisely what Republicans want—for girls seeking abortions to be punished.
Adolescent abortion in Indiana is already rare, accounting for less than 300 procedures. Yet Republicans want us to believe that it is somehow better for these girls to be forced to give birth. Of course, once the baby is born, Republicans will gleefully reject any and all services for the child or his or her mother.