Abortion law met with opposition

An Indiana law that would again require women to receive in-person counseling 18 hours before having an abortion has generated passionate debate amongst its opposers and supporters. \nThe law could have taken effect this week, but plaintiffs, 11 women's health clinics around the state, filed Monday for a stay. The stay prevents the ruling from becoming a law until the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the request, said Ken Falk, an attorney with the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.\nIndiana law requires women to receive counseling about abortion's risks and alternatives. The law has existed since 1995, but last year, a U.S. District judge ruled women could receive over-the-phone, as well as in-person, counseling.\nBut in September, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned last year's ruling that allowed women to discuss reproductive options over the phone. \nThe Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York is now asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, as an 11-member appeals court in Chicago has since declined to hear their appeal, Falk said. \nBetty Cockrum, president and chief executive officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana, said the state has seen a decline in abortions among teenagers due to their increased education on sex and contraception. She contrasted this group with low-income women, a demographic in which the number of abortions performed yearly has increased. She said these women often lack access to reproductive information.\n"Educational efforts aren't getting to those women," Cockrum said.\nShe said the new law would further deter women from receiving thorough reproductive knowledge.\n"It's a hurdle to make it more difficult to get an abortion," she said.\nThe law's critics claim it inconveniences women who are poor or live in rural areas, because it forces them to make two trips to abortion clinics.\nWomen would have to take off work, find someone to care for children while away and possibly find lodging in the city in which the nearest clinic is located, if the law is passed, Cockrum said. \nAlthough 38 Planned Parenthood Health Clinics are distributed around Indiana, women can receive abortion information only at clinics that do not receive federal funding, said Theresa Browning, director of communications for Planned Parenthood. Just three of the 38 clinics offer abortion services.\nBut not everyone agrees with the argument that the 18-hour counseling requirement unnecessarily burdens women. \n"I don't think the counseling requirement is that much at all for such a huge decision," says junior Melody Kanney, vice president for IU's Students for Life. "If you're going to make a decision that big, you should expect there to be some type of inconvenience."\nShe said she finds the in-person counseling rule reasonable considering the issue's weightiness.\n"It's much more personal face-to face," Kanney said. "It's such a personal decision and not the kind of issue to talk casually about over the phone"