Planned Parenthood Statement on Dangerous Senate Enrolled Act 299
Contact: Nicole Erwin, Communications Manager, 502-260-8678; [email protected]
For Immediate Release: March 20, 2020 (Updated: March 20, 2020, 7:40 p.m.)
Governor Holcomb Refused to Stop Harmful Legislation Meant to Shame Pregnant Hoosiers
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — This week, Governor Holcomb signed Senate Enrolled Act 299, a dangerous and medically unnecessary bill that seeks to shame and stigmatize abortion care. In the middle of a global pandemic, the governor and legislature chose to prioritize playing politics with reproductive health care instead of pursuing policies that actually improve the lives and health of Hoosiers.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky (PPAIK) condemns this legislation, and the elected officials who voted to shame pregnant Hoosiers and continue the stigma around abortion. Only Louisiana has passed more abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade than Indiana, passing 63 laws designed to make it more difficult to get an abortion. Indiana already forces abortion patients have their medical tissue either buried or cremated and SEA 299 takes this requirement even further with the sole purpose of shaming pregnant people and making it harder to provide abortion care. This session the legislature managed to push through this harmful bill while letting die a popular pregnancy accommodations bill that enjoyed bipartisan support, in a state that suffers from some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
Statement from Jennifer Allen, CEO at PPAIK:
“As our country grapples with the global pandemic from the coronavirus, the Republican-led supermajority continues to prioritize intrusive laws that threaten pregnant Hoosiers’ access to health care and shame them for their personal decisions. This law is yet another example of a solution in search of a problem in the relentless efforts to attack abortion access across this country. We should focus our attention on promoting laws that increase access to care, not decrease it through political tricks that cause confusion and interfere with complicated, private medical decisions. Right now, our leaders need to be focusing on taking care of the community instead of dividing us by trying to score political points. This is not a game. People's lives are at stake.”