Victoria Ratliff
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—Two years ago, Ali Brown found herself needing emergency contraceptive services after becoming pregnant while a copper intrauterine device, or IUD, was still in place.

Her regular physician was unavailable to see her for at least two weeks, so Brown turned to Planned Parenthood and received treatment within 24 hours. And without that quick treatment, she said she wouldn’t have been able to deliver a healthy son.

That is why Brown was at the Statehouse Tuesday as part of a press event to support Senate Bill 589, which would grant all Hoosiers complete reproductive freedom.

It was the 46^thanniversary of the historic Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the country. As the press event continued inside the Statehouse, anti-abortion advocates from Indiana March for Life protested outside the building.

“My vision is to build an Indiana where families thrive in safe and healthy communities,” said Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis, who authored SB 589 with the goal of helping Hoosiers like Brown get the medical services they need.

Rev. Anastassia Zinke, senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Indianapolis, said that reproductive rights shouldn’t be a matter of politics. She has been asked to counsel women, men, and couples who attend her church as they made hard decisions about their reproductive health.

“I have yet to meet a person who is asking his or her legislator to play this role,” Zinke said.

She wants Hoosiers to make their own decisions about the reproductive health and doesn’t want them determined by legislators in Indianapolis, who do not face these issues daily.

Breaux agrees.

“It is my hope that we stop playing politics with our health and our lives, and instead work together to shape an Indiana where we strengthen families by protecting Hoosier rights,” she said.

Tracey Wilkinson, assistant professor of pediatrics at Indiana University, said that Hoosiers should have control over whether they want certain reproductive health services or not.

“Hoosiers, not politicians, should be the ones making decisions about their contraception, pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and parenting,” she said.

Three bills have been filed in the current legislative session to limit abortion services, including House Bill 1430 which dictates that human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by human sperm and Senate Bill 210 makes it legal for a health care provider to refuse abortion services if it violates their religious, moral or ethical beliefs.

Breaux’s bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, it has not been scheduled for a hearing. The anti-abortion House bills have been assigned to the Public Policy Committee and SB 210 has been assigned to the Health and Provider Services Committee. There have been no hearings scheduled on any of the bills.

FOOTNOTES: Victoria Ratliff is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.