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Indiana Abortion Care Providers Say Hoosiers Should Worry About Future

Justin Hicks
/
IPB News

Indiana abortion care providers say Hoosiers should be worried about what they call an "appalling" and "despicable" attack on abortion rights.

A top state Republican lawmaker has already promised to push a ban on abortions after six weeks modeled after a Texas law that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block this week.

Many abortion rights advocates already feared the Supreme Court could weaken or even gut its longstanding abortion precedents before the Texas decision.

And with harsher anti-abortion bills coming to Indiana, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance Midwest advocacy director Sharon Lau said Indiana abortion care providers are working to assure Hoosiers that abortion is still legal in the state.

“That there are places they can go to get the medical care that they need and that we will continue fighting,” Lau said.

READ MORE: After SCOTUS Decision, Some Indiana Anti-Abortion Advocates 'Cautiously Optimistic'

Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way. Text "Indiana" to 73224. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues.

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky CEO Christine Charbonneau said Hoosiers who care about their reproductive rights need to talk to lawmakers, even those opposed to abortion.

“As long as we don’t talk to them because we think they don’t agree with us, they can live in a bubble of unreality that lets this move farther and farther down the road,” Charbonneau said.

Charbonneau also encouraged young people to get an effective, long-acting, reversible contraceptive method. She pointed out that the Texas law, which Indiana's bill could be modeled after, does not include exceptions to its ban for pregnancies that result from rape.

She also said Hoosiers should get rapid pregnancy tests, since a six-week ban is often before people even know they're pregnant.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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