Indiana Republicans, many of whom previously supported legislation to limit or ban abortion, voted this week to gut a bill that would protect and accommodate working pregnant women.
The Little Timmy Project, an organization started by a mother whose child died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), led support for the bill. Several nonprofits said the legislation would reduce the number of mothers and babies dying in Indiana. Republican opponents of the bill argued that vague business interests are more important than preserving human life and health.
Indiana: Banning Abortion, Refusing to Protect Pregnant Women
Indiana has long attempted to criminalize or heavily regulate abortion. Anti-abortion legislation signed into law by then-Governor Mike Pence in 2016 was so restrictive that it could have criminalized miscarriage. A lawsuit killed the most restrictive provisions of the law, but anti-choice politicians remain undeterred.
Last month a Republican legislator introduced a new ban that would sentence women to life in prison or death for undergoing abortions. The law also declared that any court rulings invalidating the law are illegal, and that any person who attempts to enforce women’s rights under Roe v. Wade, including by seeking to invalidate the law, has committed a crime.
This apparent concern for protecting life does not extend to the lives of women carrying babies they decide to keep.
The new law, which initially had bipartisan support, would have given pregnant workers certain accommodations, such as longer and more frequent breaks. Pregnancy accommodations improve outcomes for both the pregnant person and her baby. Yet Republican lawmakers began vocally opposing the law, insisting that it would harm businesses. They were unable to cite specific harms, or to show why these vague harms were more important than the lives of pregnant people and their babies.
Ultimately, the Indiana senate voted to gut the bill, then send it back to a study committee. This means the bill is effectively dead, along with any hope of protecting pregnant workers or the babies anti-choice Republicans claim to care so much about.
The Hypocrisy of Anti-Choice Politics
In Indiana, no reason a woman gives for seeking an abortion could possibly be sufficient. But if a business wants to endanger the lives of pregnant women and their babies for no specific reason at all, that’s perfectly fine.
Anti-choice activists scream at women outside of abortion clinics. When those women choose to keep their babies, when those women face abuse and discrimination at work, exorbitant healthcare bills, abuse within the medical system, and poverty, they turn away.
The U.S. has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world. States such as Georgia have worse maternal mortality rates than war-ravaged regions such as Iraq. If anti-choice politicians really cared about human life, they would speak out about an abusive and costly healthcare system that is killing women. A woman giving birth today is more likely to die than her mother was a generation ago. Yet Republicans remain silent—except when they’re arguing that pregnant women should be left to die if they can’t afford health coverage, or insisting that a pregnant person who chooses to work should not be safe at her job.
It’s not about protecting life. It’s never been about protecting life.