By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Officials with Indiana’s largest health care system on Thursday indicated they will use every loophole in the new abortion law they can find.
Beginning Sept. 15, abortion will be banned in Indiana. The only exceptions will be for rape, incest, to save the mother’s life, health or in the case of fatal fetal anomalies. The rape and incest exception runs out 10 weeks into pregnancy, while the medical exceptions are only good for the first 20 weeks of pregnancy or when the fetus attains viability, whichever happens first.
Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers will be the only facilities allowed to perform abortions.
IU Health Chief Medical Executive Dr. David Ingram said that the health system officials began investigating how to navigate the new law as soon as Gov. Eric Holcomb signed it on Aug. 5. Besides the legal implications, Ingram said the law has numerous practical effects. For example about 10 percent of pregnancies require specialized care such as a neonatal intensive care unit. Ingram said IU Health’s NICU system is already at 90 percent capacity, so doctors have had to work out ways to deal with the pressure from an increased number of pregnancies.
Then there are the staffing effects. Ingram said that according to a survey, IU medical school residents showed 85 percent of them are taking the passage of the abortion law into account as they decide whether to remain in Indiana after they complete their residency. There also have been cases where out-of-state recruits have withdrawn their applications due to the new law. Ingram said no current IU Health employees have quit due to the new law so far but the human resources department will specifically ask about this during future exit interviews.
Ingram said IU Health will have support teams available around the clock to help doctors determine whether they would run afoul of the new abortion law for any particular patient’s case. Each team consists of a clinician, a lawyer and a medical ethics expert.
“We’re prepared and we feel that this process has served us well,” Ingram said. “The highest priority for us is to provide services to our patients, to preserve the bounds of the patient physician relationship within the bounds of this new law.”
Dr. Caroline Rouse, medical director of maternity services at IU Riley Hospital for Children, said IU Health will continue to provide abortion services to the extent the new law allows. She said doctors will not turn patients away and will provide referrals for services it cannot provide, though it will not provide transportation to other states with more permissive abortion laws.
“Providing information to patients is permitted in order to obtain legal abortion services,” Rouse said. “And so we have that information available to give to patients who are seeking those services who do not meet the exception criteria set forth in Senate Bill 1.”
The ACLU on Tuesday sued on behalf of Planned Parenthood in an effort to block the law from going into effect. Ingram said IU Health will continue its preparations on the assumption the law become effective as scheduled. If the courts do block the law, IU Health will continue to provide abortion services in accordance with Indiana’s current law.