Sometimes, even amid a seemingly ceaseless flood of bad news, encouraging surprises come from the most unexpected of places. Even places like my home state of Indiana, in which I no longer reside because the oppressive, right-wing Christian atmosphere that characterises much of the state is suffocating to me.
I expect Indiana’s politics and court system to be perennial disappointments, and in that expectation, I am rarely disappointed. And yet, in late September, a federal district judge ruled that Indiana’s state law requiring foetal tissue remaining after an abortion or miscarriage to be buried or cremated like a deceased person should be overturned. This law now cannot be enforced while the case challenging it makes its way through the courts. State Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Catholic culture warrior, has vowed to appeal.
The ruling followed on the heels of another judge blocking Indiana’s draconian new abortion ban from being enforced while court challenges continue. I would have expected neither outcome, and they further strengthen my hope that the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down abortion rights is widely perceived as severe overreach, to the point that the public has been galvanised to fight back.
