WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to a 2016 Indiana requirement for the humane burial of fetal remains, ensuring it will remain in effect for the time being.
In 2016, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed a wide-ranging pro-life law that requires abortionists to offer women the opportunity to see ultrasound images of their preborn babies, bans abortions sought specifically due to a baby’s race, sex, or disabilities, and requires aborted babies to be either buried or cremated instead of disposed like medical waste.
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The various aspects of the law have been subjected to various legal challenges in the years since, most recently the fetal burial provision, which had been upheld by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year. Abortion allies attempted to appeal that decision to the nation’s highest court, which has now declined, Reuters reports.
The plaintiffs in the case, an Indianapolis abortion facility and two of its customers, had tried to claim that the requirement amounted to forced expression of a particular view of human life. U.S. District Judge Richard Young had agreed with that argument, but the 7th Circuit rejected it, noting that the law did not compel action on the part of individual abortion seekers, who “may choose to take custody of the remains and dispose of them as they please.”
Abortion defenders have blasted such fetal burial requirements for allegedly burdening women who have abortions. But the law places its legal obligations and their associated costs solely on abortion or medical facilities, meaning the only “burdens” are whatever personal inferences they draw from recognizing the humanity of their dead children.
Motivated by horror stories about abortion facilities destroying the babies they kill with methods such as “big ovens,” the Indiana law and similar measures in other states are meant to prevent the bodies of aborted children from being treated like medical waste and other mere garbage, both out of respect for their dignity and to underscore their humanity.
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