Indiana Senate Passes Bill Requiring Clinics to Report Botched Abortions
The Indiana Senate passed a bill Wednesday that tightens regulations on abortion facilities and requires abortion clinics and other facilities that perform abortions to report when any complications occur.
Senate Bill 340 passed the Indiana Senate in a 37-9 vote, according to The Indianapolis Star. The bill mandates hospitals, doctors and abortion clinics report any complications during an abortion, including hemorrhaging, infection, respiratory arrest, blood clots, incomplete abortion and others. Doctors, abortion clinics and hospitals must also report if a woman wanting to abort expresses a desire to do so because she was abused, harassed or coerced.
Hospitals and abortion clinics applying for operational licenses must also disclose whether they have ever been barred from obtaining legal documents or had their operations shut down due to a failure to meet health and safety regulations.
In addition, the law expands a safe haven baby box measure to allow women to leave an unborn baby at any Indiana fire station, including those staffed by volunteers, without risk of facing criminal charges.
The Senate’s passage of the bill comes after the Indiana House approved the measure last week. “The days of abortion businesses hiding injuries to women, or looking the other way when women are coerced into abortion, will hopefully come to an end with this important bill,” Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter said, according to LifeNews.
The bill will now head to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk for signature. The governor, a Republican, has not said whether he will or will not sign the bill, but he did sign the sole abortion measure that arrived at his desk in 2017, the IndyStar reported.
Arizona lawmakers also recently approved a bill that will mandate abortion providers and physicians request information from women undergoing abortions about their reasons to abort and provide them with comprehensive information about the risks of abortion.
The Arizona bill — Senate Bill 1394 — lists 11 potential reasons, including questions about the woman’s emotional and physical health, according to The Arizona Republic. Reasons include not being able to afford a child, not wanting a child, being raped, a husband having an extramarital affair, abuse and others.
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