In the PPINK

When it comes to legislation, nothing catches our attention quite like hotly contested social issues.

Abortion has become infamous as a source of intense friction between political parties, so when Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Indiana on unconstitutionality grounds, it joins a long line of cases throughout our nation’s history that have attempted to establish common political ground on abortion.

The law, approved by the state legislature and signed by Governor Mike Pence in April, demands surgical standards of non-surgical centers that simply administer the abortion pill. Standards include separate recovery, procedure and scrub rooms, as well as wider hallways.

Features that, conveniently, the Lafayette clinic doesn’t possess.

These requirements are so superficial that the law’s targeting of this particular clinic is transparent.

If that irrelevant red tape wasn’t blatant enough, the law also dictates that other pharmacies, clinics and offices in Indiana are exempt as long as neither their surgical procedures nor prescribed medication are related to abortion in any way.

Naturally, compromises must be made.

The ACLU has every right to act on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky and retaliate against a law that does more harm than good.

But an abortion is an invasive procedure, be it surgical or non-surgical via the pill, and these facilities should be under frequent inspection to ensure they’re providing safe, responsible, constructive care to those who seek it.

Still, the notion that a pharmacy should be equipped with the technology to perform surgeries is irrational.

The unreasonable nature of this legislation points to an alternate agenda for those who supported the bill. Are wider hallways necessary for filling prescriptions? Only if those prescriptions are for the abortion pill, says Act 371.

The Planned Parenthood in Bloomington offers these services and more, according to their website. In their 2011-12 Annual Report they disclose that only 3 percent of the patients they attended to sought abortion services — the majority were STD testing, cancer screenings and contraception.

These are all vital health services, and it is disturbing to discover that the Indiana legislature seeks to temporarily deny women access to that health care while Planned Parenthood clinics are closed for construction so post-op rooms can be added and hallways can be widened on a facility that doesn’t perform surgery.

Or worse, these changes can’t be made and Planned Parenthood is forced out of Lafayette.

Sharon Negele, R-District 13, who sponsored the bill, argues that it seeks to “safeguard women’s health.” But if no surgeries are being performed, how will wider hallways and post-op recovery rooms aid women seeking adequate healthcare? The only thing this arbitrary mandate safeguards is Indiana’s ability to hinder medical practices they deem immoral and block women, especially underprivileged women, from getting safe and necessary healthcare.

Act 371 is a law applied arbitrarily to target the Lafayette clinic and hinder its attempts to serve the women of central Indiana.

We can only hope that the ACLU and PPINK will be successful in their endeavors to debunk this superficial injustice and keep the women of Lafayette informed, safe and in the pink.

­— opinion@idsnews.com
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