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Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is exploring ways to help provide city-county employees with access to abortion services now that Indiana’s near-total abortion ban has taken effect.
“While we interpret state law as prohibiting the direct use of public funds for City-County employees to access abortion care, we are analyzing additional options that would connect employees with critical services,” Hogsett spokesman Mark Bode told IBJ in an email.
What form that assistance might take is unclear, but the interpretation of state law by Hogsett’s Democratic administration would appear to rule out directly providing city funds to reimburse travel and lodging expenses for employees who travel out of state for an abortion.
Hogsett’s Republican mayoral opponent Jefferson Shreve did not immediately provide a response to the mayor’s interest in protecting abortion access. Previously, Shreve has said that the issue of abortion is “just not part of the mayor’s job” and that Hogsett is simply trying to make abortion a political wedge issue.
Whatever approach Hogsett might decide to take likely would need the approval of the Democrat-controlled City-County Council, and council President Vop Osili told IBJ through a spokeswoman that he already is on board.
“I will always be in support of city employees having access to the most robust health care possible, and I am committed to working with the administration in these efforts,” Osili said in written remarks.
The council already passed a resolution in August 2022 which in part noted that it “further intends to take such steps as may be appropriate to protect and advance” abortion rights.
In an emailed statement, Bode said Mayor Hogsett also is “strongly committed to ensuring all Indianapolis residents have access to reproductive health care, including working at the statehouse to reverse the draconian abortion law that went into effect earlier this week.”
The response shows the deep divide between the Republican-dominated Legislature that passed the near-total abortion ban and some Democratic-led cities seeking to protect access to abortion care, a split that Hogsett has been emphasizing in his bid for a third term.
Hogsett’s campaign recently released an ad titled, “No Thanks,” in which several women decry the anti-abortion, pro-gun rights messaging in Shreve’s ads for his unsuccessful state Senate bid in 2016.
Just this week, Shreve released an ad in which he says the mayor has no control over abortion policy.
“I’m Catholic. I take my faith seriously, but quietly,” Shreve says in the ad. “I believe in the separation of church and state, and that my views are mine and your views are yours. I will absolutely not dedicate IMPD resources to prosecuting cases of abortion. Our police already have their hands full, to say the least.”
Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Jennifer Oliva said Hogsett has valid concerns about the legality of directly using public funds to provide abortion access. In an email to IBJ, Oliva said using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion or abortion access may be against Indiana public policy or explicitly violate Indiana laws related to the spending of tax dollars.
“Whereas a private employer … might survive a challenge for providing non-insurance-related travel funds to its Indiana employees to travel out-of-state for health care services, a taxpayer-funded employer (like the City of Indianapolis) might face a more substantial and entirely different type of challenge if it uses public funds to assist their Indiana employees with out-of-state reproductive health services that are illegal under Indiana state law,” she said in written remarks.
She called the issue a “gray area” that will likely be litigated soon.
Rep. Sue Glick, the Republican attorney from LaGrange who sponsored the state’s new abortion law, said she was not immediately sure if the law barred the use of public tax dollars to fund public employee travel for abortions. But she criticized any city program that would attempt to evade the law.
“I can’t imagine that the city council and the mayor would think that is an expeditious use of taxpayer dollars,” Glick said.
The Democrat-led city of Bloomington already has a policy that pays for employees and families to travel out of state for abortion care. It also has set aside $100,000 for grants to help local organizations provide access to out-of-state abortion care for Bloomington residents.
Glick said government employees would be better served by comprehensive health care packages that include contraception.
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“ Glick said government employees would be better served by comprehensive health care packages that include contraception.”
Just government employees?
Funny how contraception wasn’t a part of her abortion bill and the efforts to broaden access to contraception keep getting watered down or defeated. Maybe make it part and parcel of the bill next time if that’s how you actually feel?
Funny how many Indiana legislators are trying to distance themselves from their abortion ban votes when they had the tools all along to actually decrease the number of abortions for decades if they weren’t so beholden to the extremist forced birth wing of their coalition. I’m sure seeing how things are going in Kentucky and Ohio have absolutely nothing to do with it.
“Hogsett’s Republican mayoral opponent Jefferson Shreve did not immediately provide a response to the mayor’s interest in protecting abortion access.”
LOL. Why would Shreve respond. Just read Hogsbreath comments and apply them to Shreve as he has no original ideas. Spinless RHINO.
Mayor Joe: just have another drink and rip the babies out yourself
This guy has immersed himself so far into the leftist culture, like others, he’s gone completely off the rails. His demo mantra has abandoned many that, if nothing else, finance his job, those of his associates and administration. I have never witnessed such one sided, obvious, pandering political ads
Another Dem election campaign ploy by Hogsett. Abortion has nothing-zero-notta thing to do with being mayor. Yet he brings it up to spin the gullible in.
Goes both ways.
People bash Hogsett for terrible roads when road funding is a state issue and it’s clearly been demonstrated that Indianapolis is being robbed by the Legislature. Heck, even Shreve gave up on the issue and said he wouldn’t be able to fix it.
So now we know that the Mator thinks an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars is to send people to other states to kill their offspring. How much money will he spend fighting for this in court?
Or: the mayor wants to give female city employees a full scope of reproductive healthcare.
Don’t use my tax dollars Hogsett for your baby killing scheming. Maybe we should RICO your ass like the imbeciles in Georgia just did to Trump. What just complete BS!!! Oh, but why am I complaining about you Hoggie boy. I moved out of Marion County to get away from mis-management on your part and your Dumbocratic City County Council. But, I still you suggest to your irresponsible employees that can’t control their sexual urges, both the male and female, if they get pregnant don’t reward them with funding to leave the State to go kill off the person they have created. Sicko irresponsibility and Mayor you are aiding and abetting in the couple’s attempt to kill their child. Carry that around on your conscience dude!!!!!!!!
So Joe wants to assist his employees with skirting a state law? Did I read that right? Talking about the degradation of our democracy! What other laws does Joe want to assist in breaking? Election Law? Drug Laws? Criminal Laws? Where is the outrage? Is there no bottom to the craziness of liberals.