Republican Gov. Michael Braun signed an executive order Tuesday ordering all state agencies to fully enforce Indiana’s pro-life laws after complaints the Indiana Department of Health failed to fully release required abortion data.
INDIANAPOLIS (LifeSiteNews) -- Republican Gov. Michael Braun signed an executive order Tuesday ordering all state agencies to fully enforce and comply with Indiana’s pro-life laws after complaints over the Indiana Department of Health failing to fully release required abortion data.
As the Right to Life of Northeast Indiana explained, “For the past year, the Department of Health has not been releasing the full reports due to ‘privacy concerns’ with the falling number of abortions in the state, rather only releasing aggregate reports,” limiting the public’s ability to fully analyze compliance with Indiana abortion law.
Indiana bans abortion with exceptions for rape and incest up to 10 weeks, fatal fetal anomalies up to 20 weeks, and when a medical condition “necessitates an abortion to prevent death or a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function,” excluding mental conditions, or when “necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.” As a result, abortions have dropped by nearly 100 percent in the state, but the exception create opportunities for abortionists to skirt the law if not closely scrutinized.
In September, Marion County Superior Court Judge Timothy Oakes dismissed a legal challenge to the state health department, allowing it to continue exempting terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs) from public records.
On January 21, Braun signed an executive order addressing the situation that noted TPRs are necessary for “the improvement of maternal health and life through the compilation of relevant maternal health and life factors and data”; and to “monitor all abortions performed in Indiana to assure that abortions are done only under authorized provisions of the law.”
The order directs state agencies to “ensure that the State of Indiana’s abortion laws are fully and faithfully executed, including, but not limited to, the submission of TPRs,” and to “fully cooperate with the Office of the Attorney General in the investigation and enforcement of” abortion laws.
The order also calls for a full evaluation and report on the Indiana Department of Health’s compliance with state abortion law and whatever “policy, practice, procedure, and personnel changes” may be necessary to ensure compliance.
“Governor Braun’s action today ensures Indiana’s abortion law will be enforced under his administration. In directing the Indiana Department of Health to ensure compliance with pro-life laws, including reporting laws, abortion providers are on notice that there is no tolerance in Indiana for illegal abortions, or acts leading to the injury or deaths of women,” Indiana Right to Life president and chief executive officer Mike Fichter said. “We are thankful for Governor Braun’s swift and decisive move in support of Indiana’s law that has ended 98% of abortions in our state.”
The Hoosier State is one of 13 states that currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrents via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
