Lawmakers approved a bill tightening enforcement around abortion medications, targeting people providing abortions in - and out - of the state.
Part of the bill follows efforts in Texas to allow civil lawsuits against individuals and companies shipping abortion pills into the state.
“One of the concerns is the mailing and shipping of chemical abortion inducing drugs across the state of Indiana to homes and things like that,” said bill sponsor Tyler Johnson (R-Leo). “It’s a difficult task to get at and this is the approach that we are taking.”
Statewide abortions dropped from almost eight thousand in 2022 to 142 in 2024 following the passage of the state’s near-total abortion ban. Lawmakers did not provide data on how many Indiana residents might be accessing abortion inducing drugs through the mail.
Nationwide, roughly one quarter of abortions are done via telehealth according to a report from the Society of Family Planning.
The bill would largely prohibit the manufacture, prescription, or distribution of abortion medications - making those who do so, liable for the wrongful death of an unborn child.
Johnson, who is an emergency room physician, said he’s seen people who come in for complications with abortion inducing drugs. He said there is a gray area around abortion medication that he wants to address.
“They are not safe to be given over telehealth, they are not safe to just prescribe randomly over an internet website,” he said.
Healthcare advocates say the bill tees up a legal battle that is likely to head to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some states have passed so-called “shield” laws - which protect providers sending abortion medications from states where abortion is legal to states where abortion is restricted. Indiana’s bill explicitly states that shield laws can’t protect out of state providers from legal action.
“We have never had a situation where one state's abortion laws are so much in conflict with another state's abortion laws,” said Tracey Wilkinson, pediatrician and member of the Good Trouble Coalition, a health advocacy group.
Advocates like Wilkinson are also worried about an element of the bill they see as promoting a “bounty hunter” mentality between neighbors. Under the bill, courts could award $100,000 to someone who brought suit against anyone providing abortion medications.
That incentive would be hard to pass up, argued civil litigator Kathleen DeLaney.
“The state of Indiana [is] weaponizing individual citizens to go out and sue their co-citizens when they think there might have been an intent to violate a statute,” she said. “You don't even need to prove a violation occurred.”
The bill does not allow legal actions to be brought against a woman who obtains the abortion medications for use on herself - instead focusing on providers.
Lastly, the bill would send terminated pregnancy reports, or TPRs, to the office of the Inspector General, to be looked over for potential wrongdoing.
Indiana law requires doctors to file terminated pregnancy reports, or TPRs, after each abortion. Those reports detail a patient's medical history, demographics, and care.
Advocates repeatedly argued the legislation is yet another effort to “chill” healthcare workers' trying to provide necessary - and legal - healthcare. The fear of people combing through TPRs looking for wrongdoing could keep providers from offering care - even if they believe it to be legal.
“If all the terminated pregnancy reports have the potential to be reviewed, deemed illegal and prosecuted, do you think physicians want to file terminated pregnancy reports?” Wilkinson said. “No, they're going to transfer that patient somewhere else.”
In committee, Sen. Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne) disagreed that the bill would have a chilling effect at all.
“What we’re seeing is an influx of people getting and breaking the law and mailing these drugs directly to women,” she said “God forbid any of you physicians are complicit in that.”
The bill passed out of committee on a 7-4 vote, with one notable Republican dissenter.
Sen. Sue Glick (R-LaGrange) wrote Indiana’s near-total abortion ban, but voted against the bill saying it would have a chilling effect on providers.
“I think this piece of legislation needs substantial amounts of work,” she said.
The bill now moves to the full Senate.
Contact Government and Health Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org