By RICHARD ESSEX
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Several hundred people signed up Monday to testify for and against the Indiana Senate’s proposed abortion bill at a Rules committee meeting during the legislative special session.
Editor’s note: No state senator who currently represents any portion of Hamilton County sits on the Senate Rules committee.
Committee Chairman Sen. Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) on Monday night extended testimony from 30 to 40 minutes, and on Tuesday also offered a few extra minutes. Others sent comments via email. In the end, about 200 people were turned away from giving in-person testimony on Tuesday.
One woman near the front of the line of those who didn’t get to testify was not pleased, and she voiced her feelings. An Indiana State Police trooper escorted her to the door and out of the Statehouse.
The committee later voted 7-5 to advance a bill banning most abortion procedures in the state. The committee added these amendments:
- Girls under the age of 16 can get abortions in the case of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
- Girls and women over the age of 16 can get abortions in the case of rape or incest up to eight weeks of pregnancy.
- Girls and women claiming rape or incest would have to sign an affidavit for their medical file.
The committee defeated amendments, including one that would allow abortion by telemedicine and another that would grant child support and tax deductions for fetuses.
More amendments are likely with the full Senate hearing the measure on Thursday.
Before the vote, the second day of testimony inside the Senate chamber brought emotions from both sides of the issue.
Barry Atwell said on Tuesday he believes lawmakers need to make Indiana’s abortion law one of the strictest in the country.
“There were a group of people out there yesterday chanting ‘Vote them out, vote them out,’ but the fact is that most of those people didn’t vote you in,” Atwell said. “The people that have voted you in are the people who stand for life and want you to stand for life, and you have committed for standing for life but you have not done it.”
The voice that caught the attention of many on the committee was that of 17-year-old Isabel Zollner, a student from Lafayette.
“I know that no matter what testimony I give today it isn’t going to change the minds of those of you determined to strip my human rights away,” Zollner said. “No matter what terrifying accounts I bring to the table, no matter statistics I read to you, nothing is going to change your minds because, to some of you, I’m just a girl that doesn’t deserve a say in what happens to her today.”
John Pernell told the committee his ex-wife had an abortion 20 years ago. Though the procedure was legal, he says it changed his life and not for the better.
“There is a common misconception that abortion has no impact on the father,” Pernell said. “We are told it is her body and her choice and, although I felt that way initially, I soon realized that I had been misinformed. If someone would have been there to tell me the emotional effect a man would experience, I think it would have impacted my choice. I idly watched while our baby was aborted.”
Click here to read the bill.
Ford
“Earlier today, the Senate Rules Committee made SB 1 even more extreme by criminalizing healthcare professionals and even making it more difficult for rape victims to receive an abortion. I will continue to oppose this extreme total ban on abortion.”
– State Senator J.D. Ford (D-Indianapolis)
“It’s absolutely shameful that this proposal, which was overwhelmingly opposed by the Indiana residents who testified, advanced out of committee. There is no clearer indication than that to show that this supermajority does not care about the will of Hoosiers.
Taylor
“My caucus offered amendments to make this bill better – not redeemable but somewhat better for Hoosier women. The amendments that were allowed to be heard were not supported. I say allowed, because eleven of our amendments were not even permitted to be called. Science and the expert opinions of healthcare professionals, who helped advise our amendments, were shut down today.
“Instead, a bad bill was made even worse by Republican amendments. Under their changes, rape and incest exceptions are limited at 8 weeks over the age of 16 – before a woman may even be aware that she’s pregnant. This amendment is needlessly cruel and excessively uncompassionate, and I’m disgusted that it was even introduced let alone passed. I hope the rest of my Republican colleagues are more receptive to Hoosier voices and to the voices of doctors and kill this bill before doing irreversible damage to our state.”
– State Senator Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis)
Indiana Right to Life general counsel: SB 1 a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’
Submitted
Indiana Right to Life (IRTL) General Counsel Courtney Turner Milbank testified Tuesday before the Indiana Senate Rules Committee about proposed Senate Bill 1.
Milbank referred to the bill as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing’ and reiterated IRTL’s opposition to the bill with specific details.
“In general, SB 1 is an abject failure in achieving the pro-life movement’s goal of extending substantial protection to innocent unborn life now that authority has been returned to Indiana by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe and Casey in Dobbs,” said Milbank.
In her written testimony, Milbank laid out in detail what she says are the most egregious pieces of the bill that fail the unborn and prolife voters in Indiana. Those included:
- SB 1 removes all criminal penalties from, and provides compete immunity for, illegal abortions consented to by the pregnant woman, except for partial birth abortions, D&E abortions, and abortions performed without informed consent.
- SB 1 eliminates the legal requirement for the consent of pregnant woman for an abortion if it is necessary to save her life, so that a physician can abort a woman’s baby over her objection.
- SB 1 explicitly recognizes, and legalizes and facilitates, chemical abortion clinics flourishing throughout Indiana by authorizing abortion-inducing drugs to flood Indiana and by facilitating their use through licensing current and future chemical abortion clinics throughout the state.
“While billed as prohibiting abortion except to save the mother’s life and for rape or incest,” said Milbank in her testimony, “SB 1 utterly fails to limit abortions to even the exceptions that it purports to find acceptable, due to numerous and pervasive legal flaws and omissions. If adopted, SB 1 would result in the continuation of abortion on demand throughout pregnancy in Indiana. As a result, IRTL opposes the adoption of SB 1.”
Milbank further explained that what she says are the gross deficiencies in SB 1 were the “inevitable result of its formulation process,” which included no local, state, or national prolife organization or any expert pro-life lawyer, and was instead drafted based on the advice of abortion rights advocates, using their suggested language from groups such as ACOG, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is one of the foremost pro-abortion advocacy groups in the nation.
“SB 1 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, protecting abortion on demand by defective language, lack of necessary safeguards, and lack of an effective enforcement mechanism, while parading as a pro-life measure,” Millbank said. “IRTL opposes SB 1 and urges the Senate to pass truly pro-life legislation to protect the unborn.”
Click here to read a full copy of Milbank’s written testimony.
Courtney Turner Milbank is a member of the Bopp Law Firm in Terre Haute, Ind.