(LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge found a First Amendment right for Planned Parenthood to help minors get abortions out-of-state without their parent’s permission, striking down an Indiana law.
Abortion is largely illegal in Indiana now, following a 2022 law passed after the Dobbs decision. The “aid-or-assist statute” remained enjoined since 2017.
District Judge Sarah Evans Barker ruled Planned Parenthood’s free speech would be violated if Indiana could enforce its law. Barker sits on the board of hospitals that commit abortions.
“That state statute, among other things, prohibits any person from providing assistance to a minor in pursuing out-of-state alternatives for obtaining an abortion, including informing the minor of any such alternatives that may carry less stringent requirements than those imposed under Indiana law,” Barker wrote in her ruling.
Due to Barker’s ruling, Planned Parenthood can continue to tell 13-year-old or 14-year-old girls where to get dangerous abortion drugs or how to travel out-of-state without their parent’s knowledge.
The law, according to the judge’s summary, “prohibits any activity that aids or assists a minor in obtaining an out-of-state abortion without parental consent.”
She wrote further:
Accordingly, its prohibitions clearly encompass restrictions on conduct, such as driving a minor to receive an out-of-state abortion without parental consent, as well as speech, in the form of communications, including information to minors regarding the names/locations of out-of-state abortion services that would not require parental consent and/or notice and medical referrals or contacting out-of-state abortion providers on behalf of minor patients seeking out-of-state abortion services that, while legal in those states, would not comply with Indiana’s parental consent procedures.
However, she said the restrictions also unduly burden the abortion vendor’s free speech rights.
Indiana Right to Life criticized the decision.
“This ruling today by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker is an outrage – undercutting parental rights and endangering young girls,” CEO Mike Fichter stated.
“This ruling places young girls at risk of predatory abortion providers, coerced abortions, and abortions without informed consent,” according to Fichter. “It also opens the door for Indiana abortion providers to sell abortions to young girls across state borders – all without parents knowing. We anticipate and applaud an appeal by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.”
The attorney general of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, is currently suing Planned Parenthood, alleging they transport minors to Kansas without their parent’s knowledge for abortions.
Indiana abortion law currently prohibits all abortions except those sought due to rape or incest during the first ten weeks or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment” of the mother’s health. It allows for the killing of preborn babies if the preborn child “suffers from an irremediable medical condition that is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb” up to 20 weeks.
Pro-lifers, however, stress that all human life is worthy of protection from the moment of conception, that no circumstance can change that, and there is never a medical necessity to commit a direct abortion.
Judge Barker ruled against the First Amendment rights of a pro-life group just months ago
While the judge seemed concerned about the alleged free speech of Planned Parenthood, a few months ago she found that a high school acted lawfully when it barred a pro-life group.
Barker sided with Noblesville High School in March after a Students for Life group sued the school. The high school had removed approval for the club in 2021 after it posted “Defund Planned Parenthood” and “I am the pro-life generation” flyers.
SFLA previously questioned Barker’s “impartiality,” as she has a record of generally siding with the abortion industry and has ties to hospitals that kill preborn babies.
“Plaintiff cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial before this judge because of the personal bias and prejudice of the Honorable Sarah Evans Barker and her impartiality may fairly be questioned,” Students for Life wrote.
“Judge Evans Barker has consistently ruled against pro-life litigants. Additionally, Barker is on the board of Indiana University Health, which is an abortion provider in Indiana, as well as Methodist Hospital, which also provides abortions,” the legal team wrote. “Not all hospitals in Indiana provide abortion services, however, the ones that Judge Evans Barker chooses to associate herself with do.”
She did rule in 2022 in favor of the state enforcing its ban on “dismemberment abortions,” after the Dobbs ruling.