The Indiana state legislature has become the first in the United States to pass new legislation restricting access to abortion since the federal supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.
The bill went to the state’s Republican governor, Eric Holcomb, who signed it into law Friday night.
Indiana was one of the first Republican-led state legislatures to debate stricter abortion laws after the June Supreme Court ruling that gutted constitutional protections. It is the first state to pass a ban in both houses.
The Indiana Senate passed the nearly total ban 28 to 19, hours after House members advanced it 62 to 38. It includes limited exceptions, including rape and incest, and to protect life and the mother’s physical health. Exceptions for rape and incest are limited to 10 weeks after fertilization, meaning victims could not get abortions in Indiana after that. Victims should not sign a notarized affidavit attesting to an assault.
Outside the House chamber, abortion rights activists often chanted over the lawmakers’ remarks, carrying signs such as “Roe roe roe your vote” and “Build this wall” between church and state. Some House Democrats wore blazers over pink “Bans Off Our Bodies” T-shirts.
Indiana lawmakers heard testimony over the past two weeks in which residents on all sides of the issue rarely, if ever, supported the legislation. Abortion rights supporters said the bill went too far, while anti-abortion activists said it didn’t go far enough.
In defending the bill, Rep. Ann Vermilion condemned her fellow Republicans for calling women who obtained abortions “murderers.”
“I believe the Lord’s promise is one of grace and goodness,” he said. “I wouldn’t jump to condemn these women.”
The House rejected, largely along party lines, a Democratic proposal to put a nonbinding question on the ballot in November’s statewide election: “Shall abortion remain legal in Indiana?”
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said if residents were unhappy, they could vote in new lawmakers.
Kansas voters already overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have allowed the Republican-controlled state legislature to toughen abortion in the first test of voter sentiment on the issue since Roe was overturned.
Indiana’s proposed ban also followed the political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy. The case drew attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the boy came to Indiana because of Ohio’s “fetal heartbeat” ban.
Democratic Rep. Maureen Bauer spoke tearfully before Friday’s vote about the people in her South Bend district who oppose the bill: husbands behind their wives, fathers supporting their daughters, as well as women “who ask to be seen as equals”. .
Bauer’s remarks were followed by raucous cheers from protesters in the aisle and soft applause from his fellow Democrats.
“Maybe you didn’t think these women would show up,” Bauer said. “Maybe you thought we wouldn’t pay attention.”
Lawmakers in West Virginia on July 29 passed up an opportunity to become the first state with a unified ban after its lower house refused to accept Senate amendments that would have eliminated criminal penalties for doctors who perform illegal abortions. legal Instead, the delegates asked for a conference committee to consider the details between the bills.