The new pro-life law is expected to eliminate around 95% of abortions in the Hoosier State.
By Matt Lamb – LifeSiteNews – August 1, 2023
Approximately 95% of abortions are now illegal in Indiana due to a state law going into effect today, August 1.
The law, passed in August 2022, prohibits all abortions except those sought due to rape or incest during the first ten weeks or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment” of the mother’s health. It allows for the killing of preborn babies if the preborn child “suffers from an irremediable medical condition that is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb” up to 20 weeks.
It also prohibits non-hospital facilities, such as Planned Parenthood, from committing abortions.
The state’s supreme court cleared the law for enforcement with a June 30 ruling. However, the ACLU is still challenging the law separately under the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, claiming that it violates the religious liberty of pro-abortion citizens.
A pro-life group in Indiana had reservations about the law due to its wording and exceptions.
Indiana Right to Life stated last August:
While we cannot fully endorse the amended SB1 due to it rape, incest, and lethal fetal anomaly exceptions, we acknowledge the path forward is either the potential to end the vast majority of abortions in Indiana, beginning with the closure of Indiana abortion clinics in mid-September, or allowing all abortions to continue under current law, as women from Ohio, Kentucky, and other states travel to Indiana for abortions.
The group “believes substantive changes to SB1 in the House provide renewed hope that over 95% of Indiana’s 8,414 abortions will end if it becomes law.”
Planned Parenthood will no longer commit abortions in compliance with the law, though it plans to offer referrals to other abortion facilities.
“Indiana University Health, the state’s largest hospital system, has set up advisory teams that include a lawyer for consultations on whether patients meet the legal requirements for abortions,” WRTV reported.
IU Health found itself in the middle of a controversy soon after the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 when one of its abortionists, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, committed an abortion on a 10-year-old girl from Ohio. It later turned out the girl was raped by her mother’s illegal immigrant boyfriend.
The state’s licensing board did not suspend Bernard’s license but did reprimand her and fined her $3,000 for violating patient privacy when she spoke to the media about the abortion.
