Judge makes final ruling on abortion clinic law

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A federal judge has entered a final ruling barring an Indiana law that changed the classification of abortion clinics in a way that opponents say targeted a Planned Parenthood center in Lafayette that provided only drug-induced abortions.

U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson entered a permanent injunction and final judgment Wednesday siding with Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and barring the 2013 law because it violated the constitutional Equal Protection Clause. She ruled preliminarily last month.

Both the attorney general’s office, which defended the law, and Planned Parenthood sought the ruling. Attorney general spokesman Bryan Corbin says the state hasn’t decided whether it will appeal. He says the General Assembly also could revise the law that distinguishes between nonsurgical abortion clinics and physicians’ offices to address the equal protection issue.