Judge blocks Indiana abortion ban after Jewish, Muslim challenge

State residents argued a ban would violate their religious rights to terminate a pregnancy.

An Indiana judge has blocked the state from enforcing its law banning most abortions after Jewish, Muslim and other non-Christian women challenged it in a lawsuit.

Marion County Superior Court judge Heather Welch issued a preliminary injunction against the Republican-backed law, which prohibits abortions with limited exceptions for rape, incest, lethal foetal abnormalities or a serious health risk to the mother.

The plaintiffs have argued that the measure infringes on religious freedom protected by another state law.

The law had already been on hold, as another judge in September blocked Indiana from enforcing it while Planned Parenthood and other healthcare providers challenge it in court.

Indiana became the first state to pass a new law banning abortion after the US Supreme Court in June overturned its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalised the procedure nationwide. Other Republican-led states quickly began enforcing older bans.

Welch issued her injunction after a group called Hoosier Jews for Choice and five individual women challenged the abortion law under Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU said the plaintiffs represented religions including Judaism and Islam as well as "independent spiritual belief systems."

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Judge blocks Indiana abortion ban on religious freedom grounds (Reuters)

Photo:  Protest in Indiana (Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)