INDIANAPOLIS — The state of Indiana must pay more than $182,000 in attorneys’ fees following a lawsuit involving an abortion law.
Southern District of Indiana Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled Tuesday that the state must pay Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana a total of $182,499.73 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
The lawsuit was over HEA 1337, which passed the Indiana Legislature in 2016. The law would’ve banned a woman to seek an abortion on the basis of the race, gender or disability of a fetus. It also stipulated new restrictions on the disposal of fetal tissue. But the ACLU, on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, filed a lawsuit, and a stay on the law held it from going into effect.
The issue went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in May to allow the restrictions on fetal tissue. The court declined to take up the ban, meaning that part didn’t go into effect.
In November, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a motion to get reimbursed for attorneys’ fees from the state of Indiana. Because one part of the law was upheld by the Supreme Court, the state argued it should only have to pay half. But Pratt declined that, and instead ruled that the state pay the full amount.
“The State’s 50-50 argument ignores not only the time spent on the information dissemination provision, but also the reasonable attorneys’ fees billed for travel time to Chicago, Illinois for the Seventh Circuit argument for this case,” Pratt wrote in her opinion. “Under the State’s 50% proposition, the State would pay PPINK’s attorneys for the trip to Chicago, but not the return trip.”
The office of the Indiana Attorney General released the following statement on the ruling:
“In light of the fetal remains discovered in Illinois, we are especially grateful that the Supreme Court reversed the District Court’s earlier decision that purported to invalidate Indiana’s fetal-remains law.”
Hannah Brass Greer, the chief legal counsel for Planned Parenthood Indiana and Kentucky, released the following statement.
“We're glad the court recognized that we are entitled to fees, given the need to challenge Indiana's unconstitutional law," she said. "If the state of Indiana continues to pass unconstitutional legislation we will continue to challenge them in court and it will continue to be the taxpayers left paying the bill.”
