Federal Judge Blocks Another Part Of 2016 State Anti-Abortion Law

A federal judge recently struck down parts of a provision from the state’s controversial 2016 anti-abortion law. The new ruling deals with an Indiana University lawsuit on aborted fetal tissue used for research.

The law banned the sale, acquisition, and transfer of aborted fetal tissue. Indiana University sued because it uses such tissue to research Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders.

Federal judge Jane Magnus-Stinson sided, in part, with IU. She says portions of the provision are too vague to enforce, and so she struck down language that bars the transfer or acquisition of aborted fetal tissue. The judge’s ruling does leave in place the ban on selling it.

The latest decision follows two previous lawsuits against the 2016 law. The law’s ban on abortions performed because of a fetus’s characteristics and a requirement that medical facilities bury or cremate all aborted or miscarried fetal remains were among provisions struck down in those cases.