After three years of court challenges, an Indiana law that would require abortion doctors to report complications arising from abortion procedures took effect last week.
As reported by the Associated Press, the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit cleared the way for the law to take effect following the Court’s 2-1 ruling in August upholding the law. The law lists 25 physical and psychological conditions that abortion doctors would be required to report to the Indiana Department of Health if they arise following an abortion. Among these conditions include cardiac arrest, uterine perforation, and incomplete abortions.
As I covered in August, Planned Parenthood challenged the law shortly after it was approved by the Indiana legislature in 2018, claiming that it is unconstitutionally vague and that it leaves abortionists uncertain on what needs to be reported. The law makes failure to report a condition a misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
In late October, the Seventh Circuit turned down Planned Parenthood’s request for the full court to reconsider the case. It then issued an order Thursday allowing the law to go into effect.
“This complications reporting requirement is long overdue,” Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter said in a statement. “It is extremely telling that abortion businesses fought to shield these complications from being reported. Now that these reporting requirements go into effect, any abortion business refusing to comply must be denied a license renewal according to the new licensing law passed in the 2021 Indiana legislature.”
Fichter continued, stating that “[c]omplications reporting is the law, not a suggestion.”
Reportedly, more abortion restriction laws are expected during the new Indiana legislative session beginning in January. One in particular is a copy of S.B. 8, a newly-enacted law enacted in Texas that bans abortions after fetal heartbeat detection.