Speaking on behalf of Planned Parenthood before the Supreme Court Tuesday, a lawyer argued it’s fine to abort a fetus solely because it’s disabled or a certain gender, because it’s not a human being.
“You cannot discriminate against a fetus,” American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana legal director Ken Falk argued before the Supreme Court, according to the Indy Star.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood are challenging an Indiana law banning “discriminatory” abortions on the sole basis of genetic defects, such as Down syndrome. The law prohibits anyone from performing an abortion if that person knows the pregnant woman is getting the abortion solely because of the race, color, national origin, ancestry or sex of the fetus, or because the fetus has a disability.
Lawyers for the state countered ACLU and Planned Parenthood’s objection that the law infringes on a woman’s “right” to abort her unborn child in their own arguments Tuesday. Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher told the court the law would merely stop a woman from saying, “I want to have a baby. I just don’t want to have this baby,” which Indiana argues is unlawful discrimination.
The state defended the law, framing it as prohibiting discrimination based on disability. Women can still seek first-trimester abortions when they don’t want to have a child, said Fisher.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case within the next two weeks.
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