Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Limited choice

There has been a big push by Indiana legislators to regulate abortion in Indiana ?this year.

Several pieces of legislation were introduced to the Indiana General Assembly for the 2015 legislative session that would regulate abortions and clinics that offer the procedure to women.

Senate Bill 334 and House Bill 1228, if passed, would prohibit abortions if the woman seeking abortion is doing so to be selective of the sex of the fetus or if it is known the fetus has Down syndrome.

SB334 was authored with the help of Sen. Travis Holdman, who has authored abortion-regulating legislation in past legislative sessions, and Sens. Liz Brown and Amanda Banks.

Senate Bill 546, which was also authored by Holdman along with Sen. Mark Messmer, amends the definition of an abortion clinic, requires certain medical waivers in the case of an abortion and includes reporting requirements for abortions that are performed using an abortion-inducing drug.

One final bill, House Bill 1546, which was authored by Rep. Don Lehe, prohibits a person from aiding or assisting a minor in obtaining an abortion without the consent of the minor’s legal guardian.

Dr. Virginia J. Vitzthum, a senior research scientist at the Kinsey Institute and a Professor of Anthropology at IU, gave a commented on the push towards abortion ?regulation.

“Reproductive health care in Indiana could be improved,” Vitzthum said.

“By assuring that every woman, young to old and from every income level, has affordable access to gynecological and breast exams, safe and effective contraception and safe abortion options suited to her personal and medical needs.”

Coinciding with this new campaign to regulate abortions was the 42nd March for Life, an annual pro-life demonstration in Washington, D.C. that occurs on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

In the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court made abortions legal in all 50 states. The decision was made Jan. 22, 1973.

In response to the march, Indiana Sen. Dan Coats issued a statement in regards to his position on the issue.

“As a father and grandfather, I know a life is a precious gift that must be protected from the moment of conception,” Coats said in a press release. “This conviction is why I join thousands of Hoosiers in supporting the sanctity of every human life and commend their efforts as they march in Washington, D.C.”

Most likely due to the new party balance in Congress, which is now predominantly Republican, there has been a heavy surge of legislation aimed to regulate and reduce the prevalence of abortions that has been introduced into Congress.

In this legislative session, there have been no fewer than 16 bills and resolutions that have been introduced into Congress that address the issue of abortion, 11 of which explicitly aim to either cut federal funding to institutions that provide abortions to women or regulate women’s ability to receive ?abortions.

In April 2014, Gov. Mike Pence released a letter voicing his support for a piece of federal legislation that had been introduced to Congress earlier in the year.

The bill would have implemented a federal ban on abortions of fetuses after 20 weeks.

“It is for these reasons that I wholeheartedly support and join you in urging Senate leadership to allow a vote on this important piece of pro-life legislation,” Pence said in the letter.

In 2011, the most recent year that complete census of abortion information was documented, 110,800 of the 1,287,120 Indiana women that were of reproductive age became pregnant. Seventy six percent of those pregnancies resulted in live births and 9 percent resulted in induced abortions, equating to 9,340 women having obtained abortions.

In Indiana there were only 12 abortion providers, 10 of which were clinics. Ninety-three percent of Indiana counties had no abortion clinics, and 61 percent of Indiana women lived in these counties.

There are also a number of regulations that are specific to Indiana when it comes to receiving an abortion.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that aims to improve women’s reproductive health, a woman must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion.

Additionally, the parent of a minor must consent before an abortion can be given.

Public funding is available for the procedure only in cases when a woman’s life or health is in danger or in cases of rape or incest.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe