Indiana’s governor signed a bill banning nearly all abortions, making Indiana the first state to pass new legislation to severely restrict access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned United States. Roe versus Wade.
The bill’s passage through the Republican-controlled legislature also comes on the heels of Kansas voters rejecting an attempt to revoke the state’s abortion rights, and after the case of a survivor A 10-year-old Ohio rape man – who sought an abortion in Indiana after his state banned abortions – has drawn international attention.
At least 10 states have effectively banned abortion after the June 24 Supreme Court ruling. Anti-abortion lawmakers are expected to impose more restrictions in nearly half of the United States in the coming weeks and months. If signed into law, Indiana’s bill will take effect Sept. 15.
Anti-abortion lawmakers frequently referenced their Christian faith during the Indiana House of Representatives debate on Aug. 5, while at least one GOP lawmaker warned the state would face the wrath of God by authorizing any abortion in any circumstances.
Following a final vote of 62 to 38 in the chamber, a protester shouted “shame on you, Indiana”. Outside the gates, a crowd of demonstrators chanted “shame on you”.
The bill then passed the state Senate by a vote of 28 to 19.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law Senate Bill 1 soon after late Friday night.
“Following the overthrow of deerI have made it clear that I would be prepared to support legislation that makes progress in protecting life,” he said in a statement announcing his signature on the bill.
Following House amendments, the bill prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions only for rape or incest, “fatal fetal abnormality” or to prevent “harm permanent to the life or physical health of the pregnant woman”.
Survivors of rape or incest can only have an abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. According to Indiana state laws, incest does not include sexual relations with a cousin.
“There is no scientific reason for 10 weeks,” Democratic Senator Shelli Yoder said in the Senate Aug. 5. “It’s a number that seemed merciful enough for Republicans to send a message.”
Providers who perform illegal abortions would also have their licenses revoked.
The legislation — which was passed within two weeks at the start of a special legislative session called by the governor — has not been reviewed by state legislature health committees. Instead, it was sent to committees reviewing the Criminal Code.
“We must stop calling ourselves pro-life”
Republican State Rep. Ann Vermillion, among a handful of Republicans in the State House supporting an unsuccessful amendment allowing abortion for up to 13 weeks, voted against the bill, pointing to its “ideological” transformation over the course of recent weeks on the matter.
“I believe that no government should take away the right to safe medical care,” she said in her moving remarks to the House. “She should be able to choose her life and her well-being during an emotional and traumatic time.”
She also condemned the frequent injection of Christianity into the hours-long debate and called the GOP’s anti-abortion rhetoric “propaganda.”
“After these two weeks, I beg our Republican Party to revisit the word… ‘pro life’. I think we need to stop calling ourselves pro-life if it only means we have a list of life priorities,” she said.
Republican State Rep. John Jacob was among three GOP House lawmakers who voted against the bill, saying it was not tough enough. He called it “a weak, pathetic bill that still allows babies to be murdered.”
“You invite God’s judgment on our state and our nation,” he said in House remarks on Friday. “Abortion is wrong and it is barbaric.”
Democratic state Rep. Renee Pack, a U.S. Army veteran, told the chamber she chose to have an abortion in 1990 while deployed at Fort Hood.
“And after everything I’ve been through in my life, I had to come to State House to be called a murderer by my colleagues,” she said in her House address. “Sir, I am not a murderer, and neither are my sisters murderers. … We believe we have control over our bodies. It’s who we are.
Indiana State Representative Renee Pack spoke out against an anti-abortion bill during a debate on August 5
(AP)
Democratic state Rep. Sue Errington, former director of public policy at Planned Parenthood, said the issue of exceptions was “really not the core” of the legislation.
“The crux of the matter is… who decides? ” she says. “The heavy hand of the government will decide for them. Although each woman’s situation is different, [the bill] says one size.
She criticized anti-abortion legislation as premised on the idea that competent adults are incapable of determining their health care decisions, condemning Indiana’s “cruel view of women in our state.”
“You can trust us, as women, to know what we can handle in our lives,” she said. “This suggestion that we don’t know what’s best for ourselves demeans us as human beings and relegates women to second-class citizenship.”
To protesters outside the chamber, she said, “I’ve been in your shoes before. I lived the days before deer. I don’t want to go back there. The only abortions you can prohibit are safe and legal abortions.
Abortion care in Indiana has received international attention, highlighting the fragility of care throughout the Midwest and the United States.
An Indianapolis-area obstetrician-gynecologist who provided abortion care to a 10-year-old rape survivor is now mounting a potential libel lawsuit against Republican State Attorney General Todd Rokita, who was among the GOP figures who joined a media blitz to undermine her account and make baseless claims that she broke the law.
That doctor, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, urged lawmakers to reject the bill.
His employer, Indiana University Health, the state’s largest health care system and the state’s only academic medical center, said in a press release that the bill will negatively impact its ability to provide “safe and effective patient care” and could “deter physicians seeking to live and practice health care” in the state.
Vice President Kamala Harris also traveled to the state to meet lawmakers last week.
Indiana currently allows abortion until around 22 weeks of pregnancy, but restrictions include mandatory waiting periods, state-directed counseling and ultrasounds, and bans on certain health insurance coverages.
Targeted regulation of abortion provider laws, or TRAP laws, also require providers to have so-called admitting privileges at local hospitals and other regulations that are onerous for provider offices, such as requiring certain part sizes.
The state also prohibits telemedicine appointments to access medical abortion, the most common form of abortion care, using prescription drugs that can often be taken from the comfort of a patient’s home. , in many cases. The new bill, if it becomes law, will also ban medical abortions.
About 55% of all abortions in Indiana in 2020 were medical abortions.
The Independent Gt