Abortion bill could go to governor soon

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Indiana’s latest attempt to restrict abortion could go to Governor Holcomb next week.

The House has already passed a bill criminalizing what supporters have dubbed “dismemberment abortion,” with four Democrats joining Republicans in favor. A party-line vote in a Senate committee leaves the bill one Senate vote away from final approval.

The procedure in which a fetus is pulled apart in the process of removing it is formally known as dilation and extraction, and is used in the second trimester. Fort Wayne doctor Andrew Mullally contends there’s no medical reason to do it. Other doctors maintain it’s the safest way to do an abortion that late, often because of birth defects or danger to the mother’s health. without jeopardizing the woman’s future childbearing ability. And I-U health ob/gyn Caitlin Bernard charges legislators are interfering with doctors’ medical judgment for political reasons.

Doctors could face up to six years in prison for performing a D-and-E. The bill would also let either birth parent, or the parents of the mother, sue a doctor who performed it.

The A-C-L-U has successfully blocked four straight abortion laws from taking effect, and is promising a fifth legal challenge if Holcomb signs this one. The A-C-L-U’s Katie Blair says similar laws have been struck down in eight states, with two more challenges pending.