Indiana abortion clinic closes amid ‘unnecessary’ restrictions

INDIANAPOLIS — A northern Indiana abortion clinic will shut almost a yr after the state authorized a ban on the apply, with “unnecessary” and “politically driven” restrictions on abortions forcing its closure, in response to a Monday announcement.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, stated within the assertion that employees have seen over 1,100 ladies for remedy abortions “in our small but mighty South Bend clinic” because it opened seven years in the past.

Staff at Whole Woman’s Health Alliance – which has clinics in Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia – will nonetheless present distant providers, akin to referring sufferers to different abortion clinics in Indiana or states the place abortion is authorized. Patients haven’t been capable of bodily go to the Indiana clinic since December 2022.

“While we will no longer provide abortions at our South Bend clinic location, our resolve to help Hoosiers is as strong as ever,” Hagstrom Miller stated.

The Indiana clinic was certainly one of seven abortion clinics within the state and the only supplier in South Bend, a metropolis near the Michigan border and north of Indianapolis by roughly 147 miles.

Indiana lawmakers pushed forward a ban on abortions final yr, with the state’s Republican governor approving the legislation in August. The legislation solely permits abortions in instances of rape and incest earlier than 10-weeks post-fertilization; to guard the life and bodily well being of the girl; or if a fetus is recognized with a deadly anomaly.

A decide in September 2022 blocked these restrictions one week after the legislation went into impact, siding with abortion clinic operators – together with Whole Woman’s Health – in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

Abortion clinics would even have misplaced their licenses underneath the legislation, however whether or not it can return into impact rests on a choice from the Indiana Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments within the case in January.

Until then, the apply stays authorized as much as 20 weeks. Clinics like Whole Woman’s Health have struggled to stay adequately staffed whereas navigating the altering legal guidelines throughout the nation after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

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