Indianapolis hospitals perform state’s few legal abortions after near-total ban
(MIRROR INDY) — Abortions in Indiana have greatly decreased since the state’s near-total ban took effect, a new report shows, with the few legal exceptions being performed at Marion County hospitals.
Between October and December 2023, the Indiana State Department of Health reported 46 abortions — a sharp decline compared to the 1,724 abortions reported during those three months in 2022. That coincides with the state’s near-total ban taking effect in August 2023 after legal challenges delayed it for a year. Under the law, there are narrow exceptions for saving the life of the mother, lethal fetal anomalies and cases of rape or incest.
All but two of the reported abortions were performed at Indianapolis hospitals, with nearly half occuring at Riley Health Maternity Tower.
That’s no accident, according to Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis OB-GYN who said many of her patients have been turned away by their local providers.
“There are just fewer hospitals serving people in rural areas,” Bernard told Mirror Indy. “But it also has to do with the fear that OB-GYNs and hospitals have that they’re going to be targeted.”
She mentioned being concerned about anti-abortion activists and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.
Bernard was thrust into the national spotlight after Rokita publicly criticized her for providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. The story sparked outrage as the country grappled with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.
Bernard is still providing abortions at hospitals in Indianapolis, but there’s much more red tape, she said, including consulting a legal team.
“I just can’t make a decision as a physician the way I would in any other area of medical care,” Bernard said. “And that can be a very difficult process, having to tell patients they don’t meet the requirements and we can’t take care of them.”
The most common exception cited in Indiana’s latest termination report was lethal fetal anomalies — a condition that would result in an infant’s death before or shortly after birth.
“We’ve had people with fetal anomalies travel out of state, and by the time they get to Illinois they actually had a stillbirth and come back to us for care,” she said. “These things are very traumatizing.”
Indiana is one of 14 states where most abortions are outlawed. Abortion providers have set up funds for people seeking to travel to states where the procedure is legal.
The majority of people who recently had abortions covered by exceptions in Indiana, according to the report, are unmarried white women between the ages of 25 and 34.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7