A nonprofit group is suing the Indiana State Department of Health for denying its request to open an abortion clinic in South Bend.
Whole Woman’s Health Alliance filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday arguing the laws in Indiana governing abortion clinic licensing are vague and are burdensome on those seeking abortion access, Vox reported.
In August 2017, WWHA applied for a license to open an abortion clinic in the city where Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is mayor. They were denied the request for withholding information from the health department.
WWHA president and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller argues they did provide all the information requested and that department officials are motivated by anti-abortion activists. “It became very clear the state has no intention of giving us a license,” Miller said.
Buttigieg has not yet weighed in on the case, but has been involved in the clinic controversy. He vetoed South Bend Common Council’s vote last April to rezone a building to allow Women’s Care Center, which advocates anti-abortion values, to operate in a location originally zoned for residential use next to where WWHA applied to open the clinic.
“I don’t think it would be responsible to situate two groups, literally right next to each other, in a neighborhood, that have diametrically opposed views on the most divisive social issue of our time,” Buttigieg said at the time.
There are currently six abortion clinics in Indiana, three are located in Indianapolis, meaning women in the state may have to travel hundreds of miles, or go out of state, when seeking an abortion.
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