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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Bill would ban abortions if fetal heartbeat detectable

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Amy Schlichter has spent her adult life dedicated to 
unborn children.

She has had 11 failed pregnancies, she said. Four of her five children are adopted. Now, she wants to turn her own pain into a movement, so her lost children’s lives can have meaning.

Schlichter, 40, is the spokesperson for a new bill that would prohibit physicians from performing abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected.

“I have loved unborn children for years and years and prayed for them and have suffered great loss of my own,” Schlichter said. “I just feel like this is a place for me to fight for something good and make their losses not in vain.”

Senate Bill 144, also dubbed the Indiana Heartbeat Bill, would make it a level 5 felony to perform or induce an abortion before checking for a fetal heartbeat or performing the abortion after 
detecting one.

According to americanpregnancy.org, a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected from six-and-a-half to seven weeks into a pregnancy.

A sister bill, House Bill 1337, is also in motion with identical language. Both bills are currently sitting in committee, Schlichter said.

SB 144 would make exemptions if a woman’s life or health is at risk but says it “requires a physician to document certain information in writing if the physician determined that a medical emergency existed and performed or induced an abortion of an unborn human individual with a detectable heartbeat.”

Schlichter said she hopes by the end of the current Indiana legislative session, the chairs of the two committees — the Health and Provider Services Committee in the Senate and the Public Policy Committee in the House — will allow the bills to have a fair hearing.

Schlichter said she contacted Sen. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City, who met with her and drafted SB 144 along with Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis.

“This important legislation would protect unborn Hoosiers’ right to life and also includes important women’s health protections,” Banks said in a press release. “It is my hope that this bill would help continue the decline in abortions performed in Indiana.”

Bills similar to SB 144 have been introduced in other states but have not come to fruition. Many have died or been postponed in 
committee.

Ohio also has its own heartbeat bill, House Bill 69, which Schlichter said was part of her inspiration to begin a similar movement in Indiana. The bill in Ohio passed the House of Representatives but has not progressed further.

The National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws is a non-profit, pro-choice organization with several state affiliates. Though Indiana does not have its own NARAL affiliate, Ohio does. The Ohio office released a press release March 24 of last year strongly opposing HB 69.

“When will this legislature learn?” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, in the release. “These decisions must be made by women, not politicians. At six weeks, many women don’t know they are pregnant. This bill would effectively outlaw abortion in Ohio.”

In North Dakota, a similar act, House Bill 1456, was signed into law in 2013, but was later blocked in July 2015 by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dawn Johnsen, an IU law professor, said she believes if the Indiana legislature enacts SB 144, the same thing will happen to the bill that happened to HB 1456 in North Dakota — it will be struck down by federal courts because it is flatly 
unconstitutional.

Johnsen, who also served as the head of Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration, said the law is a “very clear and easy case” because it would ban and criminalize abortion outright, which directly opposes Roe vs. Wade, the most infamous Supreme Court abortion case in United States history.

In Roe vs. Wade, the Court ruled 7-2 in 1973 in favor of a woman’s right to choose and declared the right was protected by the right to privacy in the 14th Amendment. Johnson said Indiana SB 114 is so unconstitutional that even leading anti-abortion advocates believe it’s a bad idea to enact for fear it might backfire and cause a setback in the mission to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

“There’s no question that that is what’s called an undue burden on a woman’s right to make her own decision,” Johnsen said. “I think if the Indiana legislature enacts this bill, it will be struck down for sure by the federal courts. It is therefore a waste of taxpayer money and an insult to women and their families to try to take away a constitutional right in this way.”

However, Schlichter said the bill has gained a lot of support, and it seems a lot of Hoosiers want to see it passed.

She said she realizes the bill will not prevent all abortions in Indiana, but said she believes it is a good and necessary step for the pro-life movement. She said if a heartbeat is detected then a baby is protected, and her goal is to prevent as many abortions and save as many babies as possible.

“It will not save all of them, and we understand that, but it will save more than we have ever done before,” she said.

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