U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who has a history of siding with Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby in her rulings, has struck down an Indiana law requiring an ultrasound to be performed on a woman 18 hours prior to an abortion, calling the requirement a “clearly undue” burden.
Pratt claims that requiring women to make more than a single trip to one of the state’s six Planned Parenthood abortion facilities would “create significant financial and other burdens” on Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and its patients.
The Associated Press reports that Indiana has 30 days to appeal the ruling, and pro-life groups are urging the state to do so:
Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter says he wants Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to appeal the case to a higher court and continue the fight “to put a time requirement on our state’s ultrasound law.”
Fichter on Monday called U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt’s ruling “sadly predictable.” He says she has “consistently issued rulings that favor the abortion industry.”
The ultrasound requirement took effect last July as part of a wide-ranging abortion law. Pratt had previously blocked two of its other provisions, including a ban on abortions sought due to fetal genetic abnormalities.
It was Pratt, an Obama appointee, who chose to restore Planned Parenthood’s funding in Indiana after legislators voted to defund the organization in 2011. At that time, Live Action founder Lila Rose noted that “Planned Parenthood in Indiana conducts over half of the abortions in the state, yet serves less than 1% of the state’s Medicaid patients.”
While Pratt’s latest ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood seems to emphasize concern for the financial burdens of women, the tiny percentage of low income women served by the organization seems to suggest that perhaps the ruling does more to protect Planned Parenthood’s profits than it does to protect women.
