Fetal remains law upheld on appeal

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld an Indiana law that requires medical facilities providing abortions to bury or cremate the “fetal remains” following the procedure.

“The bodies of unborn babies are more than mere medical waste to be tossed out with trash,” Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a release. “They are human beings who deserve the dignity of cremation or burial. The appellate court’s decision is a win for basic decency.”

The law previously withstood challenges under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The most recent case claimed the law violated free speech and free exercise under the First Amendment but was disposed by the appeals court.

“A moral objection to one potential implication of the way medical providers handle fetal remains… is some distance from a contention that the state compels any woman to violate her own religious tenets,” the court said.

Indiana’s near-total abortion ban is on hold following the Indiana Supreme Court’s decision to intervene.