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- Sep 15, 2010
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Lawmakers voted 72-23 in favor of House Bill 1210, which shortens the window during which abortions are legal and requires that women seeking abortions be told that the procedure carries a risk of breast cancer.
"It is our responsibility to protect the unborn," said the bill's author, Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero. "I hope with this legislation, women will be able to make a more informed decision about their pregnancy, and I hope ultimately we'll have fewer abortions in this state."
The bill's passage, Turner said, "will make Indiana one of the most pro-life states in America."
The fact that a similar measure has passed the state Senate makes it likely that some version of the legislation will reach Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk. At that time, the governor will review the bill's final language, said spokeswoman Jane Jankowski. He can decide to sign it, allow it to pass into law without his signature or veto it.
The House vote was a significant victory for Indiana Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that worked closely with lawmakers throughout the session.
"Today's passage of 1210 is a major step forward," said President and Chief Executive Mike Fichter. "It provides protections for pain-capable children (in the womb) after 20 weeks. It gives women better information before making abortion decisions."
The bill also has had fervent resistance from abortion-rights supporters.
About 500 Hoosiers attended a Statehouse rally earlier this month to protest what they called an attack on reproductive rights. Last month, Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, and Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis, stormed out of a committee room during discussion of the bill. Summers explained later she thought the new Republican House majority "was trying to roll back to the time when women didn't have rights."
The House and Senate bills would give Indiana some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, according to statistics compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a group that tracks state policies on reproductive issues.
More than 20 states prohibit abortion after viability -- when the fetus could survive outside the womb -- except when the woman's health is in danger. Two states -- Nebraska and North Carolina -- make abortion illegal after 20 weeks. Ten states require that patients be told a fetus can feel pain. Six mandate that patients are told abortion has been linked with breast cancer.
The Senate abortion bill, Senate Bill 328, sponsored by Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, was approved 39-9 in February. Like the House bill, it requires abortion providers to tell women that the procedure carries a risk of breast cancer and that a fetus can feel pain. Women also must be told that couples are "willing and waiting" to adopt children and that those couples may pay for prenatal care and childbirth.
Other provision of HB 1210 include:
The Indiana State Department of Health would be required to post information about fetal development and abortion on its website.
The attorney general or a county prosecutor would be able to file an injunction against any abortion provider they think has not followed the rules in the bill.
Abortions would be illegal after 20 weeks, except to preserve the life of the woman. Current state law prohibits abortions after viability, which is determined by the doctor, usually at about 24 weeks. Ninety-seven percent of abortions in the state occur before 13 weeks, according to Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
Many of the measures contained in the House and Senate bills have been longtime goals of anti-abortion activists. Their campaign got a boost this year when 19 new Republicans were elected to the House and six new Republicans to the Senate.
"There is a higher level of support for pro-life legislation in this legislature than in any previous session that I can recall in the last 20 years," Fichter said.
Some Democrats questioned Republicans' priorities at a time when state services for the poor are being cut.
"I would like to see you care as much about the children of this state as you do about fetuses, and I don't see that reflected in our budget," said Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Hammond.
The provision of the bill tying abortion to breast cancer also has been a subject of much debate.
Studies touted by the Republican National Coalition for Life cite a connection between abortion and breast cancer. However, several studies touted by the American Cancer Society dispute any clear link between breast cancer and abortion.
Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, called Wednesday "a pretty bad day for women and families and the doctor-patient relationship."
"It is alarming to watch lawmakers vote against medically accurate information," she said. "We have all these lay persons who are writing scripts into Indiana law and mandating that doctors read them to their patients when they're not fact-based. . . . It has no place in public health."
House members voted down an amendment by Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, a nurse who supports the bill, to strike the breast cancer provision. A Senate committee voted down an amendment by Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Elletsville, that would have required information given to women seeking abortions be "medically and scientifically accurate."
While speaking on the bill Wednesday, Turner, the author, apologized for saying during debate Tuesday that a woman might falsely claim she had been raped in order to obtain health coverage for an abortion. Turner made the comment while trying to persuade House members to vote down a Democratic amendment that would have allowed certain insurance plans to cover abortion in the case of rape or incest. Representatives voted down the amendment.
Indiana House OKs restrictive abortion bill | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com