Appeals Court Restores Part Of 2016 Indiana Abortion Law

Updated March 18 at 4:40 p.m.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled portions of a 2016 Indiana abortion law are not unconstitutionally vague and has reversed an injunction blocking them.

The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Thursday that U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson should have ruled against plaintiffs Indiana University and three of its researchers challenging the law that, in part, criminalized the transfer of fetal tissue.

Magnus-Stinson found a section of the law dealing with the acquisition, receipt and transfer of the fetal tissue to be too uncertain to have legal force. But the appeals court opinion written by Judge Frank Easterbrook says, "Some uncertainty at the margins does not condemn a statute."

A telephone message seeking comment was left for an IU spokeswoman.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story The Associated Press reported erroneously that a lawsuit challenged a section requiring aborted fetuses to be buried or cremated. The lawsuit challenged the criminalization of the transfer of fetal tissue.