Indiana Judge Rules That Abortion Is a Religious Sacrament...Seriously, She Did

AP Photo/LM Otero, File

In the annals of "Our Elites Are Demons" and "Yes, the Left Considers Abortion a Religious Act," a ruling by a Judge in Indiana that abortion is a protected religious practice is a bit on the nose. 

Advertisement

BREAKING: Indiana Judge Christina Klineman has issued a ruling claiming there is a religious right to kill babies in abortions.

Klineman issued a permanent injunction blocking Indiana's abortion ban based on the outrageous claim.

The judge blocked the ban for a certified class of people who claim killing a baby in an abortion is an exercise of their religious beliefs.

Klineman ruled that the state’s 2022 abortion law violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening the religious exercise of people who say their religion supports killing babies in abortions.

Attorney General Todd Rokita will appeal the ruling to a state appeals court.

I have been quipping for a while now that liberals consider abortion a sacrament, but I thought I was using a bit of hyperbole to make a point. 

Nope. Abortion is a sacrament

In Indiana, a Marion County Superior Court judge issued a permanent injunction March 5 blocking enforcement of Indiana’s abortion ban on the outrageous claim that there is a so-called religious right to kill babies in abortions.

The judge blocked the ban for a certified class of people who claim killing a baby in an abortion is an exercise of their religious beliefs.

The ruling is prompting sharp criticism from pro-life advocates, who called the decision a perversion of religious freedom protections.

Judge Christina R. Klineman ruled that the state’s 2022 abortion law violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening the religious exercise of the plaintiffs. The class includes members of Hoosier Jews for Choice and others whose beliefs hold that a woman’s mental or physical health takes precedence over the right to life of an unborn child. Never mind that abortions have been linked for decades to depression, suicide and adverse mental health problems.

Advertisement

I wish this were a Babylon Bee article, but instead it is a, for the moment, legally binding decision by a judge with actual power. 

I wonder if the ruling applies to men who can get pregnant. I assume so. No doubt such men are entitled to state-funded abortions followed by surgery to create fake penises. 

“The state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act bars a law that substantially interferes with class members’ religious beliefs that a pregnant person’s mental or physical health takes precedence over that of a zygote, embryo, or fetus,” Klineman wrote.

The state did not show it had a compelling interest justifying protecting babies from certain death, she claimed.

The judge further stated: “The abortion law would allow a plaintiff to seek an abortion if her pregnancy were the result of rape, but not if it were mandated by her religious beliefs. The state has not justified this differential treatment by establishing that its interest in the same prenatal life changes based upon the reason for terminating a pregnancy.”

Klineman rejected the state’s argument that the law does not burden religious exercise because it penalizes only abortionists, not the women seeking abortions.

“Penalizing providers to avoid the violation of RFRA is an untenable end-run around the conflict in these laws,” she wrote.

She added: “The court finds that there is significant public interest in ensuring the religious freedom of all citizens and the state’s position that religious freedom is somehow less important than other exceptions in the abortion law puts the court in an untenable position and finds a permanent injunction the only proper relief.”

Advertisement

Health exceptions are tricky things, given that they are interpreted to mean just about anything. Does having a child you don't want leave you anxious? 

Kill it! That is what this judge's decision means. 

Walter Hern, an abortionist, performs abortions until birth based on the argument that pregnancy is, in itself, life-threatening, meaning that every abortion can be justified by health concerns. 

Regardless of the circumstances of pregnancy, in Hern’s view, a woman’s life—her humanity, her wishes—isn’t just more important than her fetus’s. It is virtually the only thing that matters. That approach is diametrically opposed to the view of anti-abortion advocates, for whom pregnancy means motherhood and, often, self-sacrifice.

Hern understands that few share his total conviction. “This is a grotesque conversation to many people,” he said at the bar. “But this is a surgical procedure for a life-threatening condition.”

During that conversation and the ones following it, I prodded for cracks in Hern’s certainty. At one point, I thought I’d found one: Hern had told me about a woman who’d sought an abortion because she didn’t want to have a baby girl. I thought he had refused. But when I followed up to ask him why, I learned that I had misunderstood. Hern said he had done abortions for sex selection twice: once for this woman; and once for someone who’d desperately wanted a girl. It was their choice to make, he explained.

“So if a pregnant woman with no health issues comes to the clinic, say, at 30 weeks, what would you do?” I asked Hern once. The question irked him. “Every pregnancy is a health issue!” he said. “There’s a certifiable risk of death from being pregnant, period.”

Advertisement

Vomit. 

Child sacrifice has been a religious practice for millennia. 

And, once again, at least one judge believes it is a legal one in the United States.

Editor's note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you want to join the conversation in the comments -- and support independent platforms -- why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | March 06, 2026
Advertisement
Advertisement
Mitch Berg 4:25 PM | March 06, 2026
Advertisement