The Supreme Court turned away a challenge on May 1 to Indiana’s law requiring the cremation or burial of the remains of aborted babies.
The lawsuit is one of many nationwide that have been adjudicated in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade. In that case, the Supreme Court found that there was no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution and returned the regulation of abortion to the states.
The lawsuit contested a 2016 law signed by Republican Mike Pence, the Indiana governor at the time who become U.S. vice president in 2017, that required the burial or cremation of the tissue from abortions instead of using the conventional method of incineration utilized for human medical waste. The Supreme Court previously upheld the law in 2019, before the Dobbs decision changed the legal landscape on abortion, determining at the time that the state had a legitimate interest in how human remains were disposed of.
No justices dissented from the new unsigned order in Doe v. Rokita, court file 22-951. Todd Rokita, a Republican, is the attorney general of Indiana.
The court did not explain its decision not to hear the case.
The lawsuit was brought by two unidentified women who underwent abortions, two identified medical professionals, and an Indianapolis abortion clinic.
In their petition filed with the Supreme Court on March 28, the challengers stated that they “sincerely believe as a matter of religious and moral conviction that: 1) an embryo is not a person, and 2) burial or cremation of the embryonic tissue from their abortion procedures would signify that it is.”
The challengers argued that the Indiana law violated their constitutional rights.
“Until 2016, Indiana healthcare facilities disposed of all human tissue from medical procedures according to standard medical protocols. ... That year, Indiana banned use of those protocols for embryonic and fetal tissue from abortion and miscarriage procedures, and began requiring abortion and miscarriage patients either to consent in writing to burial or cremation of their tissue or to assume responsibility for its transportation and disposition without the help of a healthcare provider despite its biohazardous nature,” the petition stated.
“In doing so, Indiana unjustifiably burdened the religious exercise and expressive conduct of individuals, including the Doe Plaintiffs, who believe that the rituals of burial and cremation are appropriate for people, and that an embryo or fetus should not be treated like a person.”
A federal district court previously found that the tissue disposition mandate violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment because it burdened the religious practice of those who hold that a fetus or embryo should not be treated like a person and compelled them to affirm a contrary message regarding when life begins.
But in November 2022, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit invalidated that ruling and reinstated the law. The circuit court found that constitutional rights were not affected because the women who had the abortions “may choose to take custody of the remains and dispose of them as they please.”
Rokita praised the Supreme Court for rejecting the challenge to the Indiana law.
“The court ruled in our favor today—a ruling consistent with the understanding that life is precious and should be treated accordingly,” Rokita told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“Nothing is more foundational to ordered liberty in America than the right to life. Unborn, innocent children must be treated with the dignity they rightly deserve, and my office is fighting back against the elites who dismiss this invaluable gift.”
The Epoch Times reached out to counsel of record for the challengers, Rupali Sharma of the Lawyering Project in South Portland, Maine, but has not received a reply as of press time.
