Amicus Brief: Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1
On June 23, 2026, LRRP filed an amicus brief in the Indiana Supreme Court in support of the religious plaintiffs in Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1, who are challenging Indiana's abortion ban as a violation of the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
In March 2026, a trial court held that the abortion ban violated Indiana's RFRA by prohibiting abortions, including those motivated by a patient's religious faith, and granted a permanent injunction exempting religiously motivated abortions from the ban.
LRRP's brief was filed on behalf of religious studies scholars, faith leaders, and organizations. It draws on interviews conducted as part of the Abortion & Religion Study, a systematic research project that has collected more than 180 interviews with religious individuals who have had abortions. Those interviews document what is often obscured in legal and political debates: for many people of faith, the decision to end a pregnancy is made because of, not despite, their religious commitments. The accounts in the brief span Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and Jewish traditions, and reflect decisions made in prayer, in consultation with religious leaders, and in sincere conviction that faith called them toward that choice.
Indiana's RFRA prohibits the state from substantially burdening a person's religious exercise unless it can demonstrate a compelling governmental interest pursued through the least restrictive means available. For plaintiffs whose faith motivates them to seek an abortion, being compelled to carry a pregnancy to term constitutes exactly such a burden. A win in this case would not end Indiana's abortion ban; it would require the state to exempt individuals whose sincere religious beliefs are substantially burdened by the ban.
Related LRRP resources
Q&A on the Religious Right to Abortion: Answers to the most common questions about what RFRA does and does not protect.
A Religious Right to Abortion: Legal History and Analysis: LRRP's foundational resource on how RFRA and state religious freedom laws have been used to challenge abortion bans.
3 Myths About Religious Freedom and Abortion: An accessible explainer addressing common misconceptions about the religious right to abortion.
The Abortion Exception (Columbia Law Review Forum): LRRP Director Liz Reiner Platt responds to critiques of religious-right-to-abortion litigation.
Indiana Now Has a Religious Right to Abortion: Dr. Christine Ryan, Senior Fellow for Reproductive Rights, writing for Rewire News Group on the background and significance of this case.