AG Hill Continues Defending Law Requiring Reporting Of Abortion Complications

In July, a U.S. district court upheld an Indiana law requiring that abortion clinics be inspected on an annual basis but struck down other requirements.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - Attorney General Curtis Hill has appealed a U.S. district court’s ruling against an Indiana law requiring physicians, hospitals and abortion clinics to report complications arising from abortions.

In July, a U.S. district court upheld an Indiana law requiring that abortion clinics be inspected on an annual basis but struck down as “unconstitutionally vague” another requirement that doctors report complications arising from abortions.

In particular, the court found the term “arising from” to be overly vague, questioning whether causal links could be established between abortion procedures and the 25 conditions that medical professionals would be required to report when experienced by women following abortions.

The language of Indiana’s law, however, uses terminology already established in other statutes as meeting constitutional standards, Attorney General Hill said.

“Concerns regarding the causal relationship between an enumerated medical condition and an abortion procedure,” Attorney General Hill states in the brief, “are remedied by precedents holding that whether a medical outcome ‘arises from’ a particular cause must be determined by reasonable medical judgment.”

Further, such wording is hardly unique in U.S. law, he adds in the brief.

“Notably, state and federal statutes — even criminal statutes, and even statutes governing abortion procedures — commonly use the words ‘arising from’ to denote a causal relationship,” he writes. He adds that “the district court has cited no case holding that ‘arising from’ is unconstitutionally vague in any other context.”

Ultimately, Attorney General Hill said, Planned Parenthood is continuing its nonstop determination to seize on any means by which it might weaken Indiana’s abortion regulations.

“While Planned Parenthood continues working to protect the financial profits of the abortion industry,” Attorney General Hill said, “we will continue working to protect women’s health and the lives of unborn children.”

Indiana’s appellate brief is attached.

• 08 - Brief and Required Short Appendix of Appellants.pdf