INDIANAPOLIS — Abortion providers are asking an Indiana trial judge this week to broaden access to abortions under the state’s near-total ban.

Indiana law allows for abortion in rare circumstances, including when the health or life of the woman is at risk, but only at a hospital.

Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are asking a Monroe County judge for a preliminary injunction expanding the medical exemptions and blocking the hospital-only requirement. The bench trial before special Judge Kelsey Blake Hanlon is scheduled for Wednesday through Friday.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the ban in June, ending a broader legal challenge brought by the same plaintiffs, but said the state’s constitution protects a women’s right to an abortion when her life or health is at risk.

The plaintiffs say the ban’s exceptions for protecting health are written so narrowly that in practice, many doctors won’t end a pregnancy even when a woman’s condition qualifies under the statute.

According to the complaint, the ban does not account for conditions that may threaten health later in a pregnancy, after giving birth or for conditions that may exacerbate other health problems. The health and life exception allows for an abortion up to 20 weeks into the pregnancy.

The plaintiffs also want women to be able to have abortions if medically indicated for psychological reasons. The current statute explicitly rules out the threat of self harm or suicide as a “serious health risk,” which is another reason why the plaintiffs say the state’s definition is unconstitutional.

“The uncertainty caused by the Health or Life Exception’s confusing definition of serious health risk and threats of licensure penalties and criminal prosecution chill Indiana physicians from providing abortions necessary to protect their patients’ lives and health,” the complaint says.

Only a few hospitals, largely in the Indianapolis area, provide abortions and usually at a higher cost than at clinics, the complaint says. Doctors prescribing medication must observe the woman swallowing the pills, delaying abortions for patients who don’t live nearby.

The state has called the providers’ claims “vague and ambiguous” in court filings, and denied that Indiana infringes on any legal rights.

The challenge was filed in politically liberal Monroe County, home to Indiana University’s main campus, but Democratic judges handed off the case until it landed before Hanlon, a Republican elected in a neighboring conservative county.

Indiana became the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The state law also allows exceptions for rape, incest and lethal fetal anomalies in limited circumstances.

Since the ban took effect, abortions in the state have dramatically dropped. According to the latest report from the state health department, 46 abortions were reported in the last three months of 2023, down from 1,724 during the last quarter of 2022.

A separate legal challenge seeks to establish a religious exception to the abortion ban in Indiana. The state attorney general asked the Indiana Supreme Court last week to take up the case after an appeals court sided with four residents and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice in April.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Pacers All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton missed both Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Celtics after he injured his hamstring in Game 2. However, that was not necessarily his choice.

The day after Game 2 he said he could barely walk. But by the morning of Game 3, he felt like he could play.

“I feel good,” Haliburton told his agents on a phone call. “I’m not going to lie to guys. I really don’t care what you say, I’m going to try to play.”

He said there was an organization wide meeting with his agents and the front office, and they did not allow him to play in Game 3. He said their job is to protect him from himself, and he is thankful that they helped him with that.

“It’s definitely been frustrating but it is what it is,” Haliburton said.

He exited Game 2 with 3:44 left in the third quarter. But his injury didn’t happen then. He said the injury happened in the second quarter when he was guarding Al Horford. He got a lot of treatment at halftime to get ready for the second half and even missed the halftime meeting. But his hamstring was still bothering him in the second half.

“I knew when coach took me out in the third quarter that it was probably done,” Haliburton said.

Haliburton did make it clear that this is a new injury, not just a reaggravation of the hamstring injury he had in the regular season. It is to the same hamstring, but in a different spot. He also said that he was never really 100% from the first hamstring injury.

Halliburton averaged 18.7 points per game in the playoffs, the first postseason he played in. He also named to the All-NBA 3rd Team and was selected as an al-star for the second time of his career this season.

Indiana spent roughly $439 million on its voucher program for the 2023-24 school year as enrollment in private schools hit a record high, a surge driven in large part by students from wealthy families.

The figure represents a $127 million increase from the $311 million the state spent on its voucher program last year, according to the Choice Scholarship Program annual report released Friday. The number of participating students in 2023-24 increased by approximately 32% from 2022-23.

Additionally, the number of voucher students from households making more than $150,000 soared after lawmakers last year abolished most requirements for participation and raised income eligibility to 400% of the threshold to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.

Nearly 8,000 students in 2023-24 came from households making between $150,000 to $200,000 annually, up from around 2,800 in 2022-23 — an increase of 183%.

And the number of voucher students from households making more than $200,000 increased roughly tenfold, from 354 students in 2022-23 to about 3,700 in 2023-24.

The number of students from those two income brackets combined who used vouchers in 2023-24 increased by 8,495, representing just over half the total growth of about 16,720 students.

Among the other income brackets, around 2,000 more students came from families making up to $50,000; an additional 2,000 came from families making between $50,000-$100,000; and the number of students from families making between $100,000 to $150,000 grew by a little more than 4,000.

Critics of the voucher program warned last year that relaxing the income eligibility requirement would effectively subsidize students from wealthier families to attend private schools. Supporters, meanwhile, said relaxing eligibility would give parents more choices in their students’ education.

Previous data showed that private school enrollment in Indiana was increasing, but not as quickly as the rate of voucher use, indicating that many students using vouchers this year had already been enrolled in private schools.

In a statement Friday on the voucher report, the Indiana State Teachers Association said the expansion funnels public funds “to those who can already afford private schools.”

“Public schools, which serve 90% of Hoosiers’ children, are open and nondiscriminatory, providing essential services and a common foundation for our diverse communities,” the ISTA said. “Vouchers undermine this public good by siphoning limited funds to private schools that lack accountability and do not serve all students equitably.”

The report notes that had all 70,000 voucher students attended their public schools, the state would have paid around $516 million in public school funding. However, the majority of Choice Scholarship students have never attended a public school.

Voucher students made up around 6.1% of enrollment statewide in 2023-24, according to the report, up from around 4.7% the year before.

The average voucher student in Indiana is a white, elementary-aged girl who lives in a metropolitan area and comes from a household of around 4.7 people making around $100,000, according to the report.

An additional 14 schools participated in the program in 2023-24, the most of any year of the program.

Chalkbeat is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Story Continues Below