A new Indiana anti-abortion law “unique and burdensome obligations,” according to a lawsuit filed Monday by Planned Parenthood. Earlier this month, an appeals court blocked portions of a Pence-era abortion law. The state has continually passed a wide range of abortion restrictions in recent years, many of which have given rise to contentious lawsuits.
An Unconstitutional Burden: Planned Parenthood’s Indiana Abortion Suit
Indiana’s newest anti-abortion regulation requires abortion providers to report abortion-related “complications” to the state. The problem with the law is that many of the complications are unlikely to be related to abortion. Symptoms such as insomnia and depression are presumed to be due to abortion under the law. This has the potential to create a sudden surge in abortion complications, and to scare women who are considering abortions. Research has continually shown that abortion is safe, and that complications are extremely rare. Indiana does not require doctors who provide other services to report minor complications.
Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit asks a federal court to block the legislation, which will go into effect July 1. According to the suit, many of the abortion complications itemized in the law "are both extremely rare for abortions and are more likely to occur after other medical procedures."
Indiana Abortion Clinic Regulations
In 2016, then-Governor Mike Pence signed into law sweeping legislation that ostensibly banned abortions based solely on disability, race, or national origin. This required doctors to ask women their reason for seeking an abortion, and to judge whether the reason was acceptable.
The law also required that Indiana abortion clinics dispose of aborted fetuses as if they were human remains, by cremating or burying them. That would be impossible, since many abortions occur when a “fetus” has not become a fetus, or when a fetus is too small to produce a “body.”
The law gave rise to a “Periods for Pence” movement in which women called Governor Pence’s office to provide details about their periods. The remains from an abortion are identical to a period, and it’s impossible to distinguish an early miscarriage from a period. Participants argued that politicians so interested in women’s bodies and so confident in their own medical judgment should be eager to learn more about women’s periods.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this week struck down the two most controversial provisions of the law.
It seems unlikely that Indiana will learn from the ruling. Legislators are continually proposing new abortion regulations in the hopes that one might eventually wind its way to a friendly Supreme Court.