Way to go, Indiana.

If all continues the way its been going. Indiana will be the first state to defund Planned Parenthood as seen in the 66-32 vote yesterday at the House. Now it has been approved by both the Senate, House and is now expected to be signed by Gov. Mitch Daniel.

Not only will HB1210 cut the $3 million of federal money for Planned Parenthood's family planning and health services (excluding abortion services because abortion services are not federally funded) but it will also do the following:

• Ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy (never mind that the Supreme Court has ruled to make that mark at 24 weeks for fetal viability)
• Provide women of Indiana with potentially false information in attempt to scare them out of having an abortion (i.e. tell them they are at greater risk for breast cancer, increased chances of risky pregnancies and infertility)
• Guilt them into not having an abortion by forcing them to have an ultrasound and listen to the heartbeat (this can only be refused if they provide written refusal in advance.)
• State policy becomes: life begins at conception, and fetuses feel pain. This ideological information would be used as another form of guilt, and would be explicitly stated to a woman before she could have an abortion. 
• "Cost the state approximately $4 million in federal Medicaid family planning funds, because federal law does not allow states to choose which providers can offer family planning services to Medicaid patients."

If he decides to sign, I hope Gov. Daniel can live with himself knowing that tons of low income individuals in Indiana will be left without affordable cervical cancer screenings, access to contraception, breast exams and mammograms, testing for STI's and family planning information (which would be incredibly useful if you're trying to minimize the number of abortions!)

(Information for this post was provided by MS. Magazine online.)





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