An Indiana judge temporarily blocked a law on Tuesday from restricting drug-induced abortions at a local Planned Parenthood clinic, USA TODAY reported.
U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson handed down the preliminary injunction to stop the law, approved earlier this year, from being enacted on January 1.
"The state has not presented a rational basis for this distinction," Magnus-Stinson said of the law, which exempts doctors' offices as long as "abortion inducing drugs are not the primarily dispensed or prescribed drug" there.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, who is supporting the law, said he is reviewing the judge's decision and determining what to do next. Zoeller has 30 days to decide what to do, whether that be taking the case to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago or dropping it.
"Because of the narrow ruling, we will consult with our clients and decide how next to proceed in the case," Zoeller said in a statement.
The proposed law only applied to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana to challenge the law on behalf of the clinic.
According to Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, the Lafayette clinic is the only place that provides "chemical abortions" off-site, meanwhile the law would have forced them to add a recovery room and surgical equipment.
Since the abortions do not end at the clinic as the procedure is finished at the home of the patient (or anywhere she chooses), there is no need for a recovery room, said Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. She added that doctors in the state are allowed to prescribe the abortion medication though the law did not apply to them.
Additionally, Falk noted a similar law in Kansas was deemed unconstitutional in 2007.
