After the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, Indiana passed the first and most severe abortion ban in the state, which was only thwarted by the government’s officials.  ,
The new legislation, with exceptions for rape, incest, destructive maternal oddity, and serious risk to the mother’s health, blocked lots of pregnancies. Again the law went into effect, the number of pregnancies in the last quarter of 2023 greatly dropped to , only 46 in the whole position, compared to 1, 724 pregnancies in the same day period a year before.  ,
The state’s department of health, which records each abortion that occurs in Indiana, stopped issuing what are known as terminated pregnancy reports at the same time as abortion numbers started to decline. Watchdog groups had a window into the abortion industry thanks to the reports, which date back to the 1970s, which made it possible to have oversight and file complaints about doctors who broke the law.
The new ban resulted in significantly fewer abortions, according to the Indiana Department of Health, which would make patients more recognisable. The department stopped making individual reports available because they were now medical records and no longer covered by the state’s public access law, with the support of the state’s public access counselor.  , Indiana’s Republican- controlled legislature and Republican Gov. In the most recent legislative session, Eric Holcomb increased the health department’s budget from$ 7 million to$ 150 million annually.
The health department is suing the health department for the release of these reports just weeks after Indiana’s Attorney General Todd Rokita challenged its decision to withhold them. Because he believed that the abortion reports, which do not disclose personal identifying information, should be made available to the public, Rokita suggested the exact course of action in his press conference.
If someone ca n’t get access, he said,” You have the right to sue the State of Indiana. That’s the bottom line”. Voices for Life, which filed its lawsuit this week,  , is represented by , Thomas More Society, a legal nonprofit that frequently works on behalf of pro- life initiatives.  ,
Voices for Life has received complaints for 701 abortion cases from information the organization’s enforcement team obtained from reports of terminated pregnancy to the health department as well as the attorney general’s office and the health department over the past two years. Because the attorney general is unable to launch independent investigations into such matters, organizations like Voices for Life have a significant role. A member of the public must initiate the investigation.
On its website, Voices for Life, which tracks Indiana’s abortions and provides detailed information about the doctors who carry out abortions and their violations, which are as severe as maternal deaths and infant deaths that are still alive, is also available. Any industry that makes money off of the killing of innocent people’s lives is not interested in breaking the law, according to Voices for Life’s website.
With the new abortion ban in place, making sure the exception loopholes are n’t exploited is essential, according to Voices for Life executive director Melanie Lyon. The goal is not to go after women, but to make sure that doctors are held accountable, she says.
She argued Indiana’s Republican- overseen health department is not helping women by deciding to hide records from the public, it’s helping provide cover for abortionists.
” This is n’t about protecting women. When Lyon made her lawsuit public, she said,” This is about shielding dangerous abortion providers from public scrutiny and the consequences of illegal activity.”  ,
There is no oversight of the new law without the terminated pregnancy reports. Both Voices for Life and the attorney general’s office value having this dispute resolved for this reason.  ,
While the state’s health department releases aggregated quarterly reports, Lyon wrote in a letter to supporters to explain why individual termination reports are still necessary:” The most recent Indiana abortion quarterly totals listed one baby born alive after a failed abortion. We ca n’t see 1 ) which hospital performed the botched abortion, 2 ) which abortionist committed the grisly deed, or 3 ) what kind of abortion procedure because the health department conceals the individual abortion report.
” Without such crucial data, enforcement is impossible”, Lyon concludes. In order to ensure that the abortion ban passed by its legislature and governor is actually the law of the land, it is crucial that the terminated pregnancy reports be eventually made public again.  ,
Amy Drake is a stay- at- home mom, writer, and St. Joseph County councilwoman in South Bend, Ind.
