The American Family Association of Indiana has issued an e-alert that includes the following:
Two bills supported by pro-life groups moved successfully through the Indiana Senate this week. Senate Bills 89 and 90 passed out of the committee hearing stage last week, the amendment stage on Monday and final passage yesterday.
Senate Bill 89 requires that a physician performing an abortion in Indiana be in good standing with the local hospital and that the abortionist inform his/her patient of which hospital to go to if there are complications. SB 89 passed the Senate on a 44-6 vote. It will need to go through the same three steps in the House next month, if it is to reach the Governor’s office and become law.
Senate Bill 90 also passed the committee step last week and the amendment stage on Monday, although a pro-abortion legislator amended it. It passed the Senate on Tuesday as well, with a 39-9 vote. SB 90 adds new requirements to the informed consent information that is to be provided to a woman considering an abortion. Before she chooses an abortion, in addition to currently required information, a woman would also be told about the expenses that adoptive parents could pay the birth mother should she choose to place her child for adoption. It also states that life begins at conception and that it is possible under certain circumstances for the fetus to feel pain in some abortion procedures.
As you can imagine, the pro-abortion groups hate this bill. They offered an amendment to require that in the pamphlet provided to the woman, the risks of childbirth also be included. This has been a verbal requirement since the passage of informed consent over a decade ago. The amendment was adopted with little to no serious opposition. There was little else opponents could do to slow or stop SB 90 in the Senate. Both SB 89 and 90 have passed the senate two previous times, but did not receive any action in the House.
Another very important bill that could be voted out of the Senate Judiciary committee today is Senate Bill 236. This legislation updates Indiana’s criminal statutes for the crime of “feticide.” Many readers may remember the Huntington Bank shooting in Indianapolis last summer and the pregnant teller who lost her twin girls after being shot in the stomach. SB 236 would make the crime applicable to situations before seven months of gestational age, which is how the courts have viewed our current feticide law. In the Huntington Bank situation, the teller’s girls were only 5 months along. The county prosecutor could not use the feticide law for a crime for which the law was originally intended.
