## Facts

- Indiana enacted a 2016 law with two relevant provisions: (1) a fetal-remains disposition requirement for abortion providers and (2) a prohibition on abortions sought solely for reasons tied to fetal race, sex, or disability diagnosis.
- The fetal-remains provision required providers to dispose of fetal remains through burial or cremation rather than treating them as certain categories of medical waste; it also permitted simultaneous cremation.
- Planned Parenthood challenged both provisions in federal court, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.
- The district court granted summary judgment for Planned Parenthood and permanently enjoined enforcement of both provisions.
- The Seventh Circuit affirmed, including concluding the fetal-remains provision failed rational-basis review and the selective-abortion provision was unconstitutional under pre-viability abortion precedent.
- Indiana petitioned for Supreme Court review.

## Issues

1. Whether Indiana’s requirement that abortion providers dispose of fetal remains by burial or cremation is rationally related to legitimate state interests under the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Whether a state may prohibit providers from knowingly performing abortions sought solely because of fetal race, sex, or disability diagnosis.

## Decision

- The Court granted certiorari on the fetal-remains issue, reversed the Seventh Circuit, and upheld the fetal-remains disposition provision.
- The Court denied certiorari on the selective-abortion issue and expressed no view on its merits.
- The Court analyzed the fetal-remains provision under ordinary rational-basis review because the challengers did not litigate it as imposing an undue burden on abortion access.
- The Court held Indiana had a legitimate interest in the proper disposal of fetal remains and that the statute was rationally related to that interest, even if not perfectly tailored.

## Legal Principles

- When a law is challenged on the premise that it does not implicate a fundamental right, ordinary rational-basis review applies; the law must be rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest.
- A state has a legitimate interest in the proper disposal of fetal remains.
- Under rational-basis review, a law need not be the most effective or most precisely tailored means to further a legitimate interest.
- Denial of certiorari leaves the lower court judgment in place without Supreme Court endorsement and does not reflect a ruling on the merits.

## Conclusion

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s fetal-remains disposition requirements as rationally related to a legitimate state interest, while declining to review—without addressing the merits—the separate prohibition on knowingly performing abortions sought solely for reasons tied to fetal race, sex, or disability diagnosis.


Box v. Planned Parenthood of Ind. & Ky., Inc., 587 U.S. — (2019)