Some excerpts from yesterday's long decision in Planned Parenthood Great Nw. v. Comm'r, decided by Judge David Hamilton, joined by Judge Ilana Rovner:
In 2017, Indiana passed what we call the "aid-or-assist" law, which forbids knowingly or intentionally aiding or assisting an unemancipated pregnant minor in obtaining an abortion without first satisfying Indiana's parental consent and notice requirements. Plaintiff Planned Parenthood provides to its clients factually accurate information about abortion providers who operate lawfully in other states. Plaintiff provides such information to unemancipated pregnant minors who seek it. Defendants are Indiana state officials who maintain that providing such information violates the aid-or-assist law unless plaintiff can show that it first satisfied the same stringent parental consent requirements that must be satisfied before a minor may obtain an actual abortion….
Defendants argue that First Amendment protections do not apply here on the theories that the information and referrals are "speech integral to criminal conduct" or merely "incidental" to conduct. We are unpersuaded by both arguments. The aid-or-assist law, as applied to the information and referrals at issue, is a content-based regulation of speech.
The court rejected the state's argument that the law regulates only speech that fits within the First Amendment exception for speech "integral to unlawful conduct":
