US judge blocks Indiana 2nd trimester abortion procedure ban

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge has blocked an Indiana law adopted this spring that aims to ban a second-trimester abortion procedure.

Judge Sarah Evans Barker on Friday granted the preliminary injunction soon after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revive a similar Alabama law seeking to ban dilation and evacuation abortions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued on behalf of two doctors who perform such abortions.

The law passed by Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature calls the procedure “dismemberment abortion.” Indiana’s attorneys called the procedure “brutal and inhumane.”

During a recent court hearing, Barker questioned why the state would force women seeking an abortion to undergo “highly risky” alternative procedures, such as prematurely inducing labour or injecting fatal drugs into the fetus.

The law was set to take effect July 1.

Tom Davies, The Associated Press