2006 Indiana legislation

March 15, 2006

The Indiana legislative session has closed. Of the bills listed in the table below, only House Bill 1314 passed. See each listing for details. The other bills are dead; we may see similar legislation introduced next year.

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Other sessions: 2008 • 2007 • 2005

Senate Bill 4—refusal to dispense birth control
This bill would change Indiana law such that no person shall be required, as a condition of training, employment, pay, promotion, or privileges, to dispense either (A) a medical device or drug that may result in an abortion; or (B) a birth control device or medication. So the nurse who refused to give emergency contraception to a rape victim, the pharmacist who refused to fill your prescription for birth control pills, and the gas station attendant who refused to sell you condoms would all be protected by law.

SB 4 could severely curtail access to contraception, especially in rural areas which may only have a single pharmacist per town or even county. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana strongly opposes legislation that so limits a woman's right to make her own contraceptive choices and allows a health care provider to keep his/her job while at the same time refusing to do it.

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Senate Bill 45—misuse of education funds
This bill would require each Indiana school corporation to include instruction regarding human fetal development in its high school health education curriculum, including descriptions and photographs of each stage of fetal development and health consequences of early termination of pregnancy. In a state that does not require school corporations to teach sex education, this would be a needless misuse of both state and local education resources, and could potentially result in a curriculum designed solely as anti-choice propaganda.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana would much rather see health education funding being spent to develop and implement comprehensive sex education programs, and leave fetal development to biology class.

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Senate Bill 129—bad policy
SB 129 would make drug use while pregnant a felony. Punitive actions taken against drug users solely on the basis of their pregnancy, including the threat of incarceration, investigation, and testing without consent, deter women from seeking prenatal care and medical care during delivery, thereby increasing the health risks for women and their children. The American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, and the American Public Health Association all oppose punishing women for drug use during pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana adamantly opposes SB 129, which would lead Indiana away from improved natal and maternal health. We also opposed this idea last session, when its original authors heard the testimony of health care professionals who have successfully treated pregnant drug users across Indiana, delivering drug-free babies to newly drug-free moms. We eagerly await new legislation in 2006 to further study the problem of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use during pregnancy and how best to expand the success of existing treatment programs to ensure drug-free pregnancies and births. Nineteen U.S. states have either created or funded drug treatment programs specifically targeted to treat pregnant women; wouldn't it be better to add Indiana to that list? Voluntary, confidential programs to treat pregnant women for both drug and alcohol abuse are much more effective than jail to ensure a healthy pregnancy and birth. See HB 1314 for a different take on this issue.

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Senate Bill 237—legislator bows to Indiana Right to Life
After the 2005 session, the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has worked extremely hard and fast to establish special procedures for the regulation, inspection, and licensure of abortion facilities as directed by the legislature. Despite the fact that the ISDH has compiled 38 pages of regulations abortion providers must follow in order to be licensed, there were two measures left out of the regulations that were specifically requested by Indiana Right to Life during the public comment period: a) that ISDH hold abortion providers to higher standards of child abuse/neglect reporting than any other health care provider, and b) that ISDH not permit exceptions to the physical plant standards. As written, the ISDH regulations require strict, technical building requirements for abortion facility licensure, but allow an existing facility to be “grandfathered in” and function in their current environment until they renovate or relocate the facility, at which time the new facility must meet all updated requirements. This “grandfather clause” is typical of any new regulation ISDH implements, but Right to Life pushed against it because they know that it alone would close every abortion facility in the state.

Sen. Kruse now carries the torch for Right to Life, trying to force ISDH to conform to political, not medical practices. All of this even when ISDH reports that the complication rate for first trimester abortions—in facilities as they exist now—is less than 0.5%. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana adamantly opposes the creation of a double standard within the medical community. Despite the fact that it is among the safest medical procedures, abortion is one of the most highly regulated procedures in the country. The regulations proposed by Sen. Kruse would do nothing to improve the health and safety of women, which is likely why the Indiana State Department of Health’s Executive Board rejected the concept. SB 237 did not receive a hearing, but the idea to remove exemptions from physical plant standards was amended into HB 1080.

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Senate Bill 273—policing parenthood
Perhaps you heard the furor caused in the Health Finance Commission over the late summer by Sen. Patricia Miller's unpopular idea of "unauthorized reproduction." Sen. Miller introduced a draft of a bill that would have made all unmarried people ineligible for any form of assisted reproduction, and made married people submit to a permit process stricter than the adoption process in order to use medical technology to conceive.

Due to the vehement response she got from citizens statewide, Sen. Miller has instead authored SB 273, which tackles the product of fertility treatments. SB 273 would allow "abandoned embryos" to be adopted for use by other infertile couples. This legislation would seem a boon to prospective parents, but it raises many other questions. It creates a misdemeanor charge for anyone who intentionally destroys an "abandoned embryo", but does not stipulate whether the biological parents can order their unused embryos destroyed, nor does it promise that a lab technician or maintenance crew won't be charged with a related misdemeanor should a fertility clinic's freezer go out.

Perhaps the vaguest, most sinister piece of the legislation is that it requires the health finance commission to study specified issues concerning assisted reproduction, infertility, gestational agreements, and surrogacy agreements—exactly what Sen. Miller was doing when she introduced the idea of "unauthorized reproduction" in the first place. Planned Parenthood Advocates will be watching this bill—and the subsequent actions of the Health Finance Commission—very closely.

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Senate Bill 327—preventing child abuse
SB 327 would send a nice portion of the proceeds from Indiana's "Kids First" license plates to Prevent Child Abuse Indiana (PCAI). PCAI is a great organization that helps kids and parents all over the state with prevention education, support programs, and local councils. Family planning services go hand-in-hand with the prevention of child abuse; wanted, planned-for children are much less likely to be neglected or abused. While Planned Parenthood works hard each day to make sure that each child in Indiana is a wanted child, PCAI works just as hard to see that no child in Indiana suffers the unnecessary horrors of abuse and neglect. Planned Parenthood Advocates supports SB 327; we would be thrilled to see the success of PCAI increase.

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House Bill 1080—more government, less health care for women
As it passed the House (2/1/06), HB 1080 would effectively close the doors of every abortion clinic in Indiana.

HB 1080 contains with the clinic regulations that Indiana Right to Life proposed, and the state department of health (ISDH) rejected, from the abortion clinic licensure process. These regulations remove the normal exemption from physical plant standards issued to all other medical providers and now require abortion clinics to meet strict physical standards by January 2007.

Meeting the physical standards means millions of dollars in renovation or new construction; the women of Indiana will be without options for safe, legal abortion for months or even years before existing clinics could meet the new standards. It was not the intention of ISDH to close clinic doors. However, that was exactly the intention of Indiana Right to Life.

HB 1080 was amended and passed by the Senate on 2/28/06. As amended, HB 1080 would not remove exemptions from physical plant standards. It instead requires abortion facilities to meet safety and fire codes, and to be annually inspected. UPDATE: the differences between the House and Senate versions of HB 1080 could not be reconciled before the close of session; therefore, the bill died. ISDH has re-approved its regulations for abortion clinic licensure, and Indiana's abortion providers are now in the application process in order to be licensed by July 1, 2006.

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House Bill 1096—abortion ban
HB 1096 would derail decades of progress for women's rights and make what has been a safe, legal procedure a Class C felony. Doctors convicted of performing abortions would serve two- to eight-year prison terms. Rep. Woodruff said he filed the bill knowing that such a law would be challenged in court, and anticipating changes in the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court that might well rule in favor of an outright abortion ban.

Criminalizing abortion does not eradicate it. Around the world, approximately 65,000 women die each year from unsafe, illegal abortions. Latin American countries, which currently have the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world, also have the highest abortion and abortion complication rates in the world.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana is appalled by this attempt to send women back to the back alley. We stand strong to protect every Hoosier's right to decide for her/himself if, when, and how to become a parent. Indiana's abortion rate can be lowered--and Indiana citizens better served--by implementing laws and programs to improve access to contraception and sex education. HB 1096 did not get a hearing but its spirit and intent were amended into HB 1080 and HB 1172.

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House Bill 1172—legislators playing doctor
HB 1172 would amend Indiana's informed consent to abortion law to require a doctor to inform a pregnant woman that the fetus may feel pain, and that anesthetics are available to fetuses of at least 20 weeks' gestational age. It's odd that a legislator would want to inform a woman seeking abortion in the first trimester that a fetus could feel pain, if anesthetic is unavailable to the fetus until it is 20 weeks' gestational age.

It's especially odd considering that roughly 95% of abortions in Indiana happen in the first trimester (before 14 weeks' gestational age), and the latest medical research (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005) shows that the earliest the fetus might feel pain is 29-30 weeks' gestational age.

This legislation would also require that abortion providers inform patients that "human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm"—further evidence that HB 1172 requires doctors to practice politics, not medicine. Planned Parenthood Advocates opposes the legislation of a single morality, of falsehood, and of harassment. The Senate amended and passed HB 1172 on 3/2/06; language about conception and fetal pain was stripped. The Senate version only requires additional information about adoption and previous "informed consent" material be given to patients in writing. UPDATE: the differences between the House and Senate versions of HB 1172 could not be reconciled before the close of session; therefore, the bill died.

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House Bill 1202—restriction of free speech in the classroom
HB 1202 provides that: (1) marriage is preferred, encouraged, and supported over any other domestic relationship; and (2) public schools may not allow instruction that is contrary to this policy, or the existing state policy that prefers childbirth over abortion. This would limit the free exchange of ideas in Indiana classrooms. If a student asks in class, "my friend had an abortion"—or "my cousin has two daddies—does that make her bad?" the teacher's only allowable response under this law is to say that "the state of Indiana prefers marriage over any other domestic relationship and childbirth over abortion."

Planned Parenthood Advocates opposes this ridiculous attempt to curtail open and honest discourse in the classroom and impose a single view of life and morality, expressly avoiding all differing moral, religious, and philosophical arguments.

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House Bill 1247—civil law addresses loss of pregnancy
Criminal law already allows for charges to be brought against a person bringing harm to a viable fetus, in addition to charges for harm caused the pregnant woman; legal abortion is exempted from this statute. HB 1247 seeks to parallel the civil law to this statute, but it leaves out the abortion exemption. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana opposes HB 1247 unless it is amended to exempt abortion, the behavior of the pregnant woman, and the emergency actions of medical personnel (malpractice notwithstanding). Planned Parenthood Advocates will also watch this bill to make sure it is not amended to set an arbitrary point of viability via legislation; viability can only be determined on a case-by-case basis by a trained medical professional. On 1/26/06, HB 1247 passed out of committee with an amendment to exempt abortion, lawful medical treatment of the pregnant woman or the fetus, and the behavior or conduct of the pregnant woman in respect to her fetus. As such, Planned Parenthood Advocates supports HB 1247. However, the bill did not receive a full vote in the House before the deadline and it is now dead for this session.

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House Bill 1314—treatment for pregnant drug users
You may recall the issue of pregnant drug users from the 2005 session; after hearing expert testimony from Planned Parenthood, March of Dimes, Indiana Perinatal Network, multiple doctors who successfully treat pregnant drug users, and others, the author withdrew last year's bill.

Treatment is a better option than incarceration. Rep. Klinker, Rep. Thompson, and Sen. Alting are all interested in ending the terrible problem of substance use during pregnancy. HB 1314, which will institute an Indiana State Department of Health study of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use by pregnant Hoosiers, existing treatment programs, and ways to replicate those programs across the state, is a great first step. Planned Parenthood Advocates happily supports HB 1314, which works to increase the percentages of healthy pregnancies in Indiana. HB 1314 passed unanimously in the House and the Senate.

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House Bill 1335—codification of prejudice
Like HB 1202, HB 1335 would add to the Indiana code the statement "marriage is preferred, encouraged, and supported over any other domestic relationship." The idea is introduced here without the educational requirement, as a safeguard in case too many legislators object to limiting the free speech of teachers and students. HB 1335 would make disdain for unmarried couples, gay and straight, part of Indiana's public policy.

Planned Parenthood Advocates opposes this meaningless, redundant bill. Indiana law already defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and has little to no protections for gay or unmarried straight couples; how many more times do we need to codify this prejudice?

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House Bill 1388—honest information for students
HB 1388 says the state board shall not adopt a textbook if the state board knows the textbook contains information, descriptions, conclusions, or pictures that are false. Planned Parenthood supports HB 1388, as it would require that even abstinence-only educational materials would have to tell the truth about contraception, gender issues, and sexuality. Learn about Get Real, Indiana! and ways you can help improve sex education.

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