Indiana abortion clinics cease offering abortions forward of near-total abortion ban taking impact

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s six abortion clinics have stopped offering abortions forward of the state’s near-total abortion ban formally taking impact and as a petition is pending earlier than the state’s excessive courtroom asking it to maintain the ban on maintain whereas authorized motion continues, clinic officers mentioned Tuesday.

Deliberate Parenthood’s 4 Indiana abortion clinics stopped performing abortions Monday in accordance with state steerage that suppliers obtained in July alerting them that on or round Tuesday abortion would turn into unlawful in Indiana in clinic settings “with actually very, very restricted exceptions,” mentioned Rebecca Gibron, CEO of the Deliberate Parenthood division that features Indiana.

Indiana’s two different abortion clinics have additionally stopped offering abortions, with one calling it “a darkish day for Indiana.”

Indiana’s Republican-backed ban will finish most abortions within the state, even within the earliest phases of a being pregnant. Indiana grew to become the primary state to enact tighter abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court docket ended almost a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Though Deliberate Parenthood’s 4 Indiana abortion clinics have stopped offering abortions, Gibron mentioned its 11 well being facilities throughout the state proceed providing a variety of companies, together with emergency contraception and birth control, even because the group works to assist Hoosiers receive out-of-state abortions.

“Deliberate Parenthood won’t be intimidated and bullied and we won’t be silenced,” she mentioned at a information convention outdoors one of many group’s clinics that offered abortions in Indianapolis.

Indiana’s ban will eradicate the licenses for all seven abortion clinics within the state — one among which closed in June — and ban most abortions, even within the earliest phases of a being pregnant. It consists of exceptions permitting abortions at hospitals in circumstances of rape or incest earlier than 10 weeks post-fertilization. It additionally permits abortions as much as 20 weeks to guard the life and bodily well being of the mom or if a fetus is recognized with a deadly anomaly.

Earlier than Indiana’s ban was handed, the state’s legal guidelines usually prohibited abortions after the twentieth week of being pregnant and tightly restricted them after the thirteenth week.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, representing Deliberate Parenthood and different abortion clinic operators, challenged the ban’s constitutionality. However in a June 30 ruling, the Indiana Supreme Court docket discovered that the ban doesn’t violate the state structure. Its ruling struck down a preliminary injunction that had saved the ban on maintain, though that ruling has but to be licensed to formally take impact.

On Monday — the final day for it to take action — the ACLU of Indiana filed a petition for a rehearing with the excessive courtroom asking it to maintain the ban on maintain whereas it pursues a narrower preliminary injunction in a trial courtroom to handle the scope of the ban’s exemption permitting ladies dealing with critical well being dangers to acquire abortions.

That submitting delays the certification of the courtroom’s ruling whereas it considers whether or not to grant or deny that petition, mentioned courtroom spokesperson Kathryn Dolan. It’s unclear how lengthy it might take the excessive courtroom to determine the matter, however after rehearing petitions are filed, the opposing occasion — on this case the state’s attorneys — have 15 days to file a response.

Gibron mentioned Deliberate Parenthood ended abortion companies Monday in mild of the state’s steerage and the uncertainty over when the courtroom will certify its abortion ban ruling.

“The truth is that it may well occur at any level. The Supreme Court docket may certify it this afternoon,” she mentioned.

Gibron mentioned Indiana’s abortion ban will “goal Hoosiers of colour, indigenous communities and people already marginalized by our health care system.”

Indiana’s two different abortion clinics, which aren’t operated by Deliberate Parenthood and are each situated in Indianapolis, have additionally stopped offering abortion care.

In an announcement, Clinic for Ladies proprietor LaDonna Prince mentioned the clinic ended abortions on Monday, calling it “a darkish day for Indiana and for the nation.”

The state’s different abortion clinic, Ladies’s Med, stopped offering abortions on Friday, a consultant mentioned Tuesday.

Though Deliberate Parenthood’s Indiana abortion clinics are not performing abortions, Gibron mentioned a “affected person navigation group” is working to assist sufferers get out-of-state abortions. That features serving to schedule appointments and discovering methods to assist them pay the prices of touring out of state.

Adjoining Illinois and Michigan — states the place abortion stays authorized — will most probably turn into the locations for a lot of Indiana residents in search of out-of-state abortion care, mentioned Gibron, who’s CEO for Deliberate Parenthood Nice Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky.

Deliberate Parenthood of Illinois had ready for years for the opportunity of Roe v. Wade falling, and it opened clinics close to the Indiana and Wisconsin borders in 2018 and 2020 in anticipation of these states limiting entry to abortion, mentioned Kristen Schultz, the affiliate’s chief technique and operations officer.

She mentioned sufferers from Indiana almost doubled after the state’s ban briefly went into impact final September and that site visitors is predicted to rise once more beginning this week. Schultz mentioned extra docs, superior nurse practitioners and medical assistants have been employed to accommodate the anticipated surge.

“The demand has elevated, the challenges have elevated when sufferers present up at our doorways having traveled eight or ten or 12 hours. That’s an elevated burden on the affected person. And our employees actually really feel that,” she mentioned.

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Claire Savage, a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative, contributed to this report.