When the law goes into effect Thursday, Indiana will join more than a dozen states with abortion bans, though most were passed before the Supreme Court’s ruling and took effect once the court rejected the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. West Virginia lawmakers approved an abortion ban on Tuesday, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban abortions nationwide after the 15th week of pregnancy, with rare exceptions, intensifying the ongoing debate inside and outside of the GOP. it has almost no chance of becoming law in the Democrat-controlled Congress. Abortion rights advocates have filed two lawsuits trying to block Indiana officials from enforcing the ban, but no court rulings have yet been issued, and all seven of the state’s abortion clinics will lose their licenses to perform the procedure under the new law. WHAT IS COVERED IN THE ABORTION BAN? Indiana’s ban includes exceptions that allow abortions in cases of rape and incest before the 10th week of pregnancy and to protect the life and physical health of the mother. It also allows them if the fetus is diagnosed with a fatal abnormality. The ban would replace state laws that generally banned abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and strictly limited them after the 13th week. Under the new law, abortions can only be performed in hospitals or hospital-owned outpatient centers, meaning all abortion clinics will lose their licenses. Any doctors found to have performed an illegal abortion would be stripped of their medical license and could face felony charges punishable by up to six years in prison. HOW IS INDIANA ACTION UNIQUE? Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature approved the ban during a two-week special legislative session after a political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to terminate her pregnancy. The case gained global attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the girl came to Indiana because of Ohio’s ban on abortion once fetal heart activity is detected, which is usually around the sixth week of pregnancy and often before the mother knows that she is pregnant. Republicans who voted for Indiana’s ban were deeply divided over whether to include exceptions beyond the one to protect the mother’s life, such as for cases of rape and incest. Similar differences among Republicans over such exemptions and whether to allow criminal charges against doctors delayed bills to tighten abortion restrictions in West Virginia and South Carolina this summer. The ban West Virginia lawmakers voted on Tuesday is similar to Indiana’s and now heads to Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who is expected to sign it into law. WHAT HAPPENS TO INDIANA’S ABORTION CLINIC? Abortion clinic operators in Indiana told The Associated Press they will stop offering abortions when the ban goes into effect, but will continue to support patients with information about out-of-state clinics. Planned Parenthood plans to keep open its four Indiana clinics that offer abortions and provide testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, as well as birth control and cancer screenings, which it says are the bulk of its services. Indiana University Health, the state’s largest hospital system, has created advisory groups that include an attorney to consult on whether patients meet legal requirements for abortions. Indiana hospitals performed 133 of the 8,414 abortions reported to the state Department of Health in 2021, with the remaining 98% performed in clinics. WHAT IS MATCH STATUS? The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has filed two lawsuits in the past two weeks to stop the ban. One argues that the ban violates the Indiana Constitution by violating the right to privacy and the guarantee of equal privilege. The other claims the ban conflicts with a state religious freedom law passed by Indiana Republicans in 2015 that drew widespread backlash from critics who said it allowed discrimination against gay people. The question of whether the state constitution protects abortion rights is undecided. A state appeals court ruled in 2004 that privacy is a fundamental value under the state constitution that extends to all residents, including women seeking abortions. But the Indiana Supreme Court later upheld a law that required an 18-hour waiting period before a woman could have an abortion, though it did not decide whether the state constitution included the right to privacy or abortion. Indiana University law professor Daniel Conkle said filing the lawsuits so soon before the ban took effect made it difficult to get an injunction to block it, but that its implementation would not end the litigation. ——— Associated Press writer Arleigh Rodgers in Indianapolis contributed to this report. Rodgers is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative corps. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.
