INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
Two key Indiana lawmakers said they do not intend to take action on
legislation addressing so-called abortion reversal procedures, likely
dooming its chances of becoming law this session.
The proposal by
Republican Rep. Ron Bacon would mandate that abortion providers give women
considering a drug-induced abortion a form containing information on
potentially stopping their procedure after taking the first of two drugs,
including a disclaimer that no medical studies confirm it is possible.
The bill cleared
the House last month after heated debate and was sent to the Senate
Judiciary committee, but Chairman Rodric Bray said Monday that he doesn’t
have time to hear the bill before lawmakers adjourn.
“I’m happy to have
that conversation - to see whether it’s good policy or not - we just ran out
of time,” the Martinsville Republican said, adding that the committee’s
final hearing is this week and he was unable to get Bacon’s measure on the
agenda.
House Public Policy
committee Chairman Ben Smaltz, meanwhile, said he won’t include the
‘abortion reversal’ provision in another abortion measure before his
committee.
The Auburn
Republican said he plans to incorporate other provisions of Bacon’s measure
into a separate bill, but not the informed consent requirement on the
‘reversal’ procedure.
“That whole section
has been omitted,” he said. “I’m going through the merge markup right now,
just to make sure.”
Critics of the
bill, including some anti-abortion Republican women, argued that provision
was irresponsible and far-reaching, as it promoted a procedure that hasn’t
been scientifically proven to work.
Claims about its
potential stem from research done by Dr. George Delgado in San Diego,
California. A paper he published in 2012 describes four of six women who had
healthy babies after taking the first medication in a two-part medical
abortion, when they received the hormone progesterone.
Since then, Delgado
says several hundred other women have received the treatment with a 60 to 70
percent success rate.
The study is not
considered high-quality research because it is small and has no comparison
group.
For women who
change their minds after taking the first drug, doing nothing and waiting to
see what happens may be just as effective as progesterone shots, according
to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
“At this point, the
only certainty is confusion,” Republican Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer said in
February when the House considered the bill. “I do not believe forcing
medical professionals to provide medical advice on something that is not
proven and incomplete is by any means the right thing to do.”
Utah’s governor
signed a bill on the ‘abortion reversal’ last week, joining Arkansas and
South Dakota. A similar law in Arizona was challenged in court and later
repealed.
Bills were also
proposed in North Carolina and Colorado this year, though a committee in the
Democratic-led House killed the Colorado bill.
In Indiana,
supporters contended that the proposal would give women a chance to save
their baby if they changed their mind.
Though Bacon, a
Republican from Chandler, said he is “disappointed” about the bill’s likely
end this session, he said he’s done what he set out to do: draw attention to
the procedure and its potential to save a baby.
“I knew it’d be a
tough fight,” he said. “There are always going to be issues on (abortion) -
not everybody agrees with you.”