TABLE TEST

This case challenges a set of Indiana laws that require healthcare providers to inter or cremate embryonic and fetal tissue following an abortion or miscarriage, regardless of their patients’ wishes. These laws also require providers to counsel their patients about interment and cremation.  Abortion patients must certify that they will inter or cremate their tissue before they can access care. The challenged laws compel abortion and miscarriage patients—and their healthcare providers—to act in accordance with the State’s view of personhood irrespective of their own beliefs about the status of developing human life.  They also seek to shame and stigmatize patients by sending the message that someone who has an abortion or miscarriage is responsible for the death of a person.  In doing so, the laws violate freedom of speech, separation of church and state, the right to abortion, and equal protection of the laws.  Plaintiffs, including several abortion patients and their healthcare providers, are asking the court to declare the challenged laws unconstitutional and permanently block their enforcement.

Jane Doe No. 1; Jane Doe No. 2; Jane Doe No. 3; William Mudd Martin Haskell, M.D.; Cassie Herr, N.P.; Kelly McKinney, N.P.; and Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation

Attorney General of Indiana; Commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health; Medical Licensing Board of Indiana; Indiana State Board of Nursing; and Marion County Prosecutor

Kathrine D. Jack; Michelle L Engel; Yale Law School Reproductive Rights and Justice Project

Plaintiffs file Complaint

Press Release: BREAKING: Patients Sue Indiana Over Requirement Forcing Burial or Cremation of Embryonic, Fetal Tissue