Abortion Bill Imposes New Reporting Requirements For Complications

A Senate committee moved forward Wednesday with Statehouse Republicans' annual effort to impose further regulations on abortion.

This year’s bill requires doctors, hospitals, and clinics to report to the state if a woman has any complications from her abortion. There’s a long list of things the bill says constitute a complication, including blood clots, pre-term delivery in future pregnancies, and anxiety or depression.

Fort Wayne obstetrician-gynecologist Christina Francis says informed consent for abortion can’t be truly informed if the state doesn’t have all the information.

“Many women present to a local emergency room and so their complications are often not tied back to their abortions,” Francis says.

Indianapolis resident Haylee Brannon says the bill only adds more burdens to women who seek abortions. She says the complications she’d report from her abortion aren’t on the bill’s list.

“I would have reported that the only trauma I endured was from pulling into a clinic lined with protesters waving posters of dead babies and condemning me to hell,” Brannon says.

The bill also requires the state to conduct annual inspections of all abortion clinics. Current law doesn’t make that mandatory.

The committee approved the bill 6-1.