INDIANAPOLIS -- The state of Indiana will appeal a federal judge's ruling blocking a requirement that women undergo an ultrasound at least 18 hours prior to an abortion.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill filed the notice of appeal Thursday with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
The motion comes after U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt granted an injunction blocking the ultrasound requirement in March.
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Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky had sued to stop the law, which went into effect in July 2016.
Pratt's ruling said the waiting period "creates significant financial and other burdens" on Planned Parenthood and its patients, particularly low-income women who face lengthy travel to one of only six Planned Parenthood health centers that can offer an informed-consent ultrasound appointment.
Other recent attempts by the Indiana General Assembly to pass new abortion restrictions have met with a similar fate in court.
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Pratt blocked a law from going into effect last year that would have made it illegal for a woman to seek an abortion on the basis of the race, gender or disability of the fetus. The law would have also required aborted fetuses be buried or cremated.
Pratt wrote at the time that the law, HEA 1337, "attempted to accomplish … precisely what the Supreme Court has held is impermissible."
Former Attorney General Greg Zoeller chose not to file an appeal of that ruling.
No date has yet been set for the 7th Circuit to hear Indiana's appeal of Pratt's ruling on the ultrasound law.
