Supreme Court Upholds Indiana Fetal Remains Law Against Planned Parenthood Challenge

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law treating the bodies of aborted babies the same as other deceased human bodies, acknowledging their humanity despite a challenge from Planned Parenthood. The Court reversed the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Indiana's fetal remains law involved a state interest that was not "legitimate."

In a nearly unanimous decision, the Court ruled that Indiana did indeed have a "legitimate" reason to prohibit the inhuman disposal of human remains, noting that even Planned Parenthood did not claim that this law would prevent women from obtaining abortions.

As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurrence, "Indiana law prohibits abortion providers from treating the bodies of aborted children as 'infectious waste' and incinerating them alongside used needles, laboratory-animal carcasses, and surgical byproducts. ... A panel of the Seventh Circuit held that this fetal-remains law was irrational, and thus unconstitutional, under the doctrine of 'substantive due process.' That decision was manifestly inconsistent with our precedent, as the Court holds."

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