Nearby States' Abortion Rights Measures Unlikely To impact Indiana

By Leslie Bonilla Muniz, Indiana Capital Chronicle

November 14, 2022

Voters in neighboring states Michigan and Kentucky chose to protect abortion in ballot initiatives last week, joining Kansas, which made similar headlines in August. But those shows of Midwest popular will won’t make a difference in Indiana, some say.

Indiana’s Republican-dominated legislature passed an abortion ban with several narrowly defined exceptions in a summertime special session. It’s still tied up in court, and was in force for just a week before a judge granted an injunction.

The only type of legally binding statewide referendum allowed in Indiana is to change the Indiana Constitution. But voters in other conservative-leaning states friendlier to ballot initiatives have declined to strip protections for abortion in shock elections.

Battleground Michigan elected to enshrine a right to freedom in “all matters relating to pregnancy” into its constitution, while red Kentucky rejected an amendment stating there’s no right to abortion under its own constitution.

Abortion also won in ballot initiatives in red Montana, as well as blue California and Vermont.
But that won’t make a difference in Indiana, argued Jennifer Drobac, a professor at Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law.

“[It means] nothing, not unless people deal with gerrymandering,” she said. “State lawmakers don’t have any incentive to change their votes in Indiana because they don’t feel at risk [in elections].”

Indiana Republican Party Chair Kyle Hupfer said he didn’t believe in gerrymandering, and noted that Republicans also hold most local offices, at a partisan event this month.

Anti-abortion groups, meanwhile, considered Hoosiers’ support for anti-abortion lawmakers last week as itself a ringing endorsement for restrictions on the procedure.

Indiana Right to Life CEO Mike Fichter noted in a Wednesday statement that anti-abortion incumbents maintained their state legislative and congressional seats, while newcomers with similar views won election to statewide offices and other positions.

“In spite of predictions by some pundits and pollsters that Indiana went too far in its approach to protecting unborn children, yesterday’s election results serve as a reminder that Indiana is a pro-life state,” he said. “We look forward to even greater opportunities to show Indiana is a state that cares for pregnant mothers and their babies.”

Fichter’s organization declined to answer specific questions by phone or email. The ACLU of Indiana and Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Drobac said she believed that if the Indiana Supreme Court indicated it was “hostile” to the ban in ongoing litigation, state lawmakers wouldn’t make it harsher — dumping exceptions or restricting contraception —come the January legislative session.

“But a lot of people that I’m talking to are saying that the ban will be lifted and that [Senate Bill] 1 will become active again,” Drobac said. “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t expect the legislature to go through.”

”We can point to Kentucky and Michigan and Kansas and et cetera, but I don’t think that’s going to carry a lot of weight with Indiana representatives,” she added.

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