Indiana says it’s seen a 98% decline in abortions after restricting the procedure last fall, adding to a national debate over the effectiveness of state bans.
The Indiana Department of Health estimated that 45 abortions occurred statewide from January to March, down from 1,931 procedures during the same period last year and over 2,000 in the first quarters of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
A state law that went into effect last August allows abortions only until the 10th week of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest, or for up to 20 weeks in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities, or to protect the life or physical health of the mother.
The department noted that it counted abortions reported only in hospitals under the new limits. According to researchers on both sides of the issue, an unknown number of Hoosiers have likely terminated their pregnancies at out-of-state clinics or through mail-order pills without reporting to the state.
“If a termination occurs but is not reported to the IDOH Division of Vital Records, this data would not be captured in the report,” the Indiana Department of Health said.
Michael New, an assistant professor of social research at the Catholic University of America and scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, said it’s impossible to measure the law’s impact until more figures become available.
“An analysis of birth data would give us a better indication of how many lives were saved by Indiana’s pro-life law,” said Mr. New, who was teaching last week at the University of Notre Dame’s pro-life Vita Institute. “Doubtless some Indiana women have circumvented the law by obtaining abortions in other states or getting chemical abortion pills through the mail.”
Under a law that the Indiana Supreme Court allowed to take effect last year, the Hoosier State eliminated the licensure of abortion clinics and required all procedures to occur in hospitals. The state’s six abortion clinics closed as a result.
Surgical abortions remain legal in reproductive health clinics after more than 20 weeks of pregnancy in neighboring Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. In January, the Illinois Department of Health reported that nearly 17,000 women traveled from out of state for abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court returned jurisdiction over the procedure to the states in 2022.
Indiana was the first state to call a special legislative session to restrict abortions after that ruling. The state’s Republican supermajority passed a law restricting abortions the same year, then took effect in August after the Indiana Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Nevertheless, abortion researchers said they had no idea how many people have traveled out of Indiana for surgical abortions this year.
“Abortion is now legal in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, so it would be relatively easy for many women in Indiana to cross state lines to have an abortion,” said Daniel K. Williams, a historian and researcher at Ashland University, a Christian school in Ohio. “However, data on this is currently limited.”
Many more pregnant women could be using mail-order abortion pills at home without reporting the move to states that have restricted the procedure, said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston.
“Many women [in Indiana] are likely using medical abortions,” said Mr. Blackman, whose state has reported a similar drop in abortions to Indiana’s numbers.
The Indiana report comes as abortion pills have surged in popularity nationwide the past decade.
Medication abortions, also known as chemical abortions, involve a two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute estimates that the regimen was used in 63% of abortions reported in the U.S. last year, up from 53% in 2020 and 24% in 2011.
In a March 25 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin reported that “provisions for self-managed abortions” increased nationally by 27,838 over what they projected based on trends before the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling.
By comparison, the study pointed to previous research showing that surgical abortions dropped by 32,360 over the same period as state restrictions drove clinics to close in Texas, Indiana and other conservative states.
At the federal level, the Biden administration in 2022 lifted Food and Drug Administration requirements that only physicians dispense abortion pills during office visits, making it easier for women in conservative states to terminate their pregnancies at home.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a challenge to the FDA’s guidelines on mifepristone, brought by pro-life advocates seeking to keep the pill out of abortion-restricting states.
The ruling came as a new Gallup Poll showed a record-high 32% of voters said that in the upcoming elections they would support only candidates who agree with their views on abortion access.
Voters in Colorado, Florida, Maryland and South Dakota will also decide in November whether to approve constitutional amendments to enshrine abortion access in their state legal codes. California, Michigan, Ohio and Vermont voters have already passed similar measures.
Kathy Lee-Sepsick, founder and CEO of Femasys, an Atlanta metro area-based reproductive health company that has patented a “permanent birth control” device, said pro-choice activists will continue to fight abortion restrictions in states like Indiana and Georgia.
“We call on policymakers, health care providers and activists to work together to create a supportive environment where women can make informed decisions about their health without undue barriers,” Ms. Lee-Sepsick said.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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