Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1

Last modified 2023.03.01


  • Status Ongoing
  • Type Amicus
  • Court State Court
  • Issues Abortion, Denial of Healthcare, Reproductive Rights

Case Documents

In August 2022, the Indiana state legislature passed a ban on nearly all abortions, making the Hoosier State the first state to adopt new legislation banning abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court’s devastating decision to abolish the federal constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit in September 2022 challenging the ban on behalf of five anonymous Jewish, Muslim, and spiritual plaintiffs and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice. These plaintiffs’ religious beliefs support and even mandate in certain circumstances abortions that are prohibited by Indiana’s abortion ban. They argue that the abortion ban therefore violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 

On December 2, 2022, an Indiana state trial court granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction, prohibiting enforcement against them of the abortion ban while the litigation continues. The state government appealed this injunction to the Indiana Court of Appeals in January 2023. On March 1, 2023, Americans United filed an amicus brief joined by fourteen religious and civil-rights organizations that argues that the injunction should remain in place. Our brief explains that the abortion ban violates a clause of Indiana’s state constitution that prohibits the state from favoring any religious creed over another, as the legislation enacts into law particular religious beliefs on when life begins and when abortion should be allowed.

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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