Indiana Health Care Providers, Pregnancy Resource Center Recount Harms Caused by Abortion Restrictions

06.28.21 – (MEDIA ADVISORY) During a nearly three-day trial that considered the constitutionality of a host of Indiana abortion restrictions, Indiana health care providers and a pregnancy resource center provided testimony detailing the harms experienced by pregnant people seeking abortion services in the state.

Among other things, Amy Hagstrom-Miller – President & CEO of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance (WWHA)  – testified about how Indiana’s medically unnecessary abortion restrictions prevent WWHA from providing abortion services to patients seeking care after ten weeks of pregnancy, while Paulina Guerrero – National Programs Manager at All-Options in Bloomington – testified about the burdens Indiana’s laws impose on Hoosiers who are forced to travel to Chicago for care.  WWHA and All-Options are both plaintiffs in this legal challenge, which was filed in 2018.

During this phase of trial, which concluded this past Friday, the Court considered:

• a law prohibiting qualified clinicians other than physicians from providing first trimester abortion care;
• a ban on providing abortion care after the first trimester of pregnancy outside of a hospital or ambulatory surgery center (ASC);
• unnecessary physical plant requirements that apply to abortion clinics; and
• biased “counseling” laws that force abortion providers to provide patients with misleading and false information.

The first phase of trial – which was held remotely in March 2021 – considered Indiana’s ban on telemedicine to provide medication abortion care and other laws requiring an in-person interaction between providers and patients, and restrictions that force patients to make multiple medically unnecessary trips to a clinic.

A ruling from the Court on restrictions addressed in both phase 1 and 2 is now pending.

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