Our crazy statehouse: Abortion and Healthcare

The conservative legislature in Indiana is doing everything it can to get its grubby little hands in between a woman and her uterus.

You would think that for a congress that was elected for its determination to create jobs and spur the economy, abortion wouldn’t be an item on the agenda.

But alas, once the Republicans wrestled the state back from Democrats, they realized there were no quick and easy fixes for revitalizing the economy, and so with no progress to return to their voters, these elected officials have turned their sights to social issues instead.

If the Republicans have it their way, pregnant women will be required to view an ultrasound of the fetus before they are allowed to have abortions, and doctors will also be required to tell women seeking abortions that the fetus could feel pain.   

This is an outrageous government reach into the health decisions that a woman must make. Republicans here have proven that they do not trust the female population to act with any sense of intelligence.

A private decision, such as the always personal and harrowing process of abortion, will no longer exist in the domain of personal choice. Instead, the government and the practicing physician will have influence in the private medical decisions of a woman.

These small, incremental changes to abortion laws are all that conservatives can do to beat back the tide set forth by Roe v. Wade. In that decision, the Supreme Court voted 7-2 that the right to privacy extended to a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. What’s more, abortions were only realistically restricted by the Court in the third trimester, when the fetus is viable.  

Being that this is a country of law, not religion, this Supreme Court ruling should be the scripture from which governments make decisions. Simply put, conservatives are trying to legislate morality, which is not the place of government.

Demanding that a woman view an ultrasound and be instructed on the medically dubious claim that a fetus may “feel pain” is insulting to the entire female population of Indiana. It implies that the state government does not trust women to make reproductive decisions on her own — that without proper guidance a woman runs the risk of making a regrettable decision.

Indiana should be wary of encroaching on the reproductive rights of women. This bill is nothing more than an outdated, archaic and sexist piece of legislation that puts the rights of women in the backseat.


E-mail: danfleis@indiana.edu