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Abortion continues a 40-plus year decline in Indiana, and thanks to a June 30 ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court, we can expect that decline to accelerate. This is good news indeed for the Hoosier State.
The Indiana Supreme Court’s ruling upheld the work of the Indiana General Assembly in August 2022 to significantly limit abortion. This new Hoosier law was the first in the nation following the ruling two months earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned the much-maligned Roe v. Wade ruling (and following cases) declaring a constitutional right to abortion that trumped all state laws.
But the new ruling at the national level last summer, in a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, enabled legislatures to again legislate in this contentious area, which Indiana quickly moved to address.
The resulting Indiana law allows for three exceptions: the life or serious health risk of the mother; rape and incest up to 10 weeks of gestational age; lethal fetal anomalies up to 20 weeks of gestational age. It further requires more robust regulations and more frequent reporting.
Indiana’s top court found in its 4-1 decision those limitations are consistent with the state constitution and the Legislature’s “broad legislative discretion to limit abortion.” The opinion, written by Justice Derek Moltor, the newest member of the court, then carefully explained why the Legislature was the best forum for the sovereign people of our state to express views on this difficult issue with irreconcilable perspectives.
It said the Legislature best reflects “society’s contemporary views constantly answerable to their constituents throughout the State in recurring elections.”
In so ruling, the court affirms last summer’s law is a legitimate exercise of state power to protect the life of an unborn child, appropriately drafted to preserve the mother’s right to life as well. It further noted laws can be changed by future Legislatures and our constitution itself can be amended as well.
Such legal reasoning has long been at the heart of the pro-life movement’s approach to policy change, and it is heartening to see it recognized and dignified by our state’s highest legal tribunal.
This case will undoubtedly foster further decline in abortions across Indiana, although the ruling merely confirms the Legislature acted within its authority in legislating these restrictions. It offered no view on the underlying wisdom of these policy positions.
Abortions peaked in Indiana in 1980, with 16,505 babies aborted. That number dropped to 7,949 native Hoosier abortions in 2021 and 7,702 native Hoosier abortions in 2022. Total abortions did increase in 2022 with out-of-state residents traveling here for abortions as those states’ previously passed laws became enforceable upon the Dobbs ruling.
Most of those 2021 and 2022 abortions (almost 59%) were performed on women ages 25 to 34, for an average age of 27. The vast majority (more than 67%) occurred before or during the eighth week of pregnancy.
It has long been argued by this columnist that abortion coarsens our culture and diminishes the well-being of children. This phenomenon will now begin to be reversed for the simple reason that abortion is no longer legal for birth control in Indiana.
We need further efforts by the pro-life community to make abortion unthinkable. We also need to do more to support mothers with unwanted pregnancies and to help fathers understand their moral and legal responsibility.
But this is a watershed moment in Indiana—abortion is no longer legal for birth control.
Watch for new policy initiatives to fund greater support for babies and their parents through creative tax credits and to change state law to a presumption of co-parenting for children.•
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Smith is chairman of the Indiana Family Institute and author of “Deicide: Why Eliminating The Deity is Destroying America.” Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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Thank you for the article. It would be interesting to learn what is the “substantive plan” by the IFI going forward to support women who are struggling with unwanted pregnancies. Proposed legislation, financial and long term aid, etc. Maybe another article in the near future to flush this out. Otherwise, it may seem like just “lip service” after having won the victory of legislation and court affirmation. And then annual updates as to the efforts success and failures. To win hearts and minds long term will require this.
Curt- State’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion is good news only for those who think they should have control of another person’s body. This ban and the ruling are obscene. And yes, I’ll watch for “new policy initiatives to fund greater support for babies and their parents through creative tax credits and to change state law to a presumption of co-parenting for children” I expect they will come from a male-dominated, Republican legislature about the same time that pigs fly, hell freezes over and women are given contraceptive rights and bodily autonomy.