INDIANAPOLIS — According to new data recently released by the Guttmacher Institute, the institute estimated that zero abortions occurred in Indiana in the month of August, which is the initial impact of the state’s new near-total abortion ban.
According to a news release from the institute, this compares with the almost 700 abortions that were reportedly conducted in the month of July in Indiana. The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy organization “committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide.”
According to previous reports, Indiana’s near-total abortion ban was officially implemented on Aug. 21, but many providers stopped providing access to the procedure at the beginning of the month because of legal uncertainty.
Senate Enrolled Act No. 1 was passed by the state in August 2022, a bill that prohibited all abortions in the state, except for three exceptions, including:
- When reasonable medical judgment dictates that performing the abortion is necessary to prevent death or a serious risk of substantial of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, or the “health or life exception.”
- When the pregnant person receives a diagnosis of a lethal fetal anomaly
- When the pregnant person is a victim of rape or incest.
If a procedure is performed outside these exceptions, it would result in criminal penalties for the physicians and could cause them to have their medical licenses revoked. The bill also eliminates licensed abortion clinics, requiring abortion care to only occur in a hospital or an ambulatory outpatient surgical center.
The release said that the three states bordering Indiana where abortion is legal, including Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, had increases in the number of abortions in August, compared with July. But officials said it was “unclear to what extent these increases reflect seasonal fluctuations in pregnancies, more abortions obtained by residents of those states or increased travel from Indiana or other states with an abortion ban.”
Nationally, the institute reported a 7% increase in the number of abortions provided in the formal healthcare system between July and August. The institute will provide monthly data on procedural and medicated abortions provided within the formal health care system.
