Anti-choice activists have marketed it as a law that promotes disability rights by banning abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome and other anomalies. But the new Indiana abortion measure, signed into law by Governor Mike Pence on March 25, creates draconian abortion rules so far-reaching they could also penalize women who have miscarriages.
Last week, pro-choice activists created the Periods for Pence campaign to combat the bill. Their stories alternate between hilarious and tragic, endlessly pointing to the intrusiveness of the bill. This week, activists are encouraging men to call the governor's office with their testicular testimonies, highlighting the fact that men have a role in abortion, too.
What Does Indiana's Abortion Clinic Bill Do?
The bill features onerous regulations that could penalize women for having miscarriages, force women to bury aborted or miscarried fetuses, and demand that women justify their abortions. Some analysts worry that the bill could even force women to report miscarriages to the authorities. Provisions of the new law include:
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A requirement that women demonstrate that they are not seeking an abortion because of the fetus's race, national origin, ancestry, sex, or disability status, and allows a wrongful death action against providers who perform abortions without such assurances.
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Requires women to be separated from their partners, advocates, and anyone else who accompanies them to the procedure. During this separation, the woman is to be told the gender of the fetus, instructed that life begins at conception, told that the fetus can feel pain, and be forced to view a “picture” of a fetus at a similar level of development.
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Demands that miscarried fetuses must be buried—a biological impossibility given that most miscarriages are indistinguishable from heavy periods. This requirement would also create a burial record for the fetus.
The law also contains language with which abortion clinics in Indiana and across the nation are now familiar: an insistence that the fetus is a person, a requirement that abortion providers maintain hospital admitting privileges, and little to no acknowledgment that the woman seeking the abortion is also a person. Men who impregnate women who seek abortions are almost totally absent from the legislation; blame apparently rests solely on the woman. In Indiana, legislators seem to believe that conceptions occur with the assistance of only one person.
Anti-Choice Activists: More Misleading Tactics
The legislation obtained broad support in Indiana's General Assembly primarily because of a now-familiar anti-choice tactic: misleading legislators and the public. Before the bill became law, anti-choice sites touted its “anti-disability discrimination provisions.” In some cases, even pro-choice feminists were taken in by the rhetoric, sharing posts on Facebook and pointing to the ethical quandaries inherent in aborting a fetus because of genetic anomalies.
Anti-choice activists still insist that the bill is designed to “protect women” and “promote disability rights.” What they fail to mention is the immense trauma women may experience in the face of a miscarriage, and the myriad ways a forced burial or cremation might compound that trauma. Moreover, a woman seeking an abortion of a wanted fetus in an attempt to shield her baby from suffering may be wracked with guilt. Women rely on doctors to provide them with accurate medical information, and when the state requires doctors to provide misleading information—such as the assertion that even a very young fetus can feel pain—it tears down the relationship between women and their doctors.
Enter 'Periods for Pence'
Anti-choice activists have grown so extreme that they are now requiring doctors to give women inaccurate medical information. Perhaps even worse, the legislation seems totally ignorant of women's biology. Between 50% and 75% of miscarriages occur before a pregnancy is even detected. These so-called chemical pregnancies are indistinguishable from a normal menstrual period. Yet under the law, women who refuse to bury the miscarried “remains”--which is nothing more than menstrual blood—are criminals. Governor Pence has signed into law legislation that could criminalize simply getting a period.
That's where the Periods for Pence campaign comes in. The group's Facebook page has organized a massive campaign encouraging women to call the governor's office and report the details of their periods. After all, the argument goes, women don't want to inadvertently become criminals. And since Governor Pence and his staff know so much more about women's bodies than either women or doctors, it's better to go straight to the authority on all things menstrual.
The hilarious calls highlight the tragic reality of criminalizing women's normal bodily functions. A few calls from the group include:
Caller: My period is three days late, but I'm starting to get the white mucus discharge. I thought the gov should know since his hand is in my uterus.
Phone Operator: Ummm, please contact your physician.
Caller: Good morning. I just wanted to call and let the good Governor know that I am still not pregnant, since he seems to be so worried about women's reproductive rights.
Phone Operator: "And can I get your name, please?"
Me: Sure, it's Not Pregnant Laura.
Phone Operator: "Good Morning, Governor Pence's office"
Caller: Good Morning. I just wanted to inform the Governor that things seem to be drying up today. No babies seem to be up in there. Okay?
Phone Operator: Ma'am, can we have your name?
Caller: Sure. It's Sue.
Phone Operator: And your last name?
Caller: Magina. That's M-A-G-I-N-A. It rhymes with —
Phone Operator: I've got it.
*Click*
Now Men Can Share Their 'Testicular Testimonies,' Too!
Pro-choice activists have long pointed to the benefits men get from safe and legal abortion, even though restrictive laws almost exclusively target women. In an effort to capture how the law could affect men—not to mention the obvious biological fact that it takes two people to make a baby—activists are now encouraging men to share their testicular stories with the Mike Pence's office.
The Governor has reportedly had to use additional call screeners to manage the backlash, and many activists have found that the lines are busy, or even disconnected. If you'd like to share your own period story or testicular testimony with Pence, call 317-569-0709. You can find more contact information, including mailing addresses and emails for various staffers, here.
Abortion Clinics in Indiana: A Dying Breed
Though a handful of abortion clinics in Indianapolis serve women and their partners, women living in rural regions of the state face limited options. Currently just four counties have abortion clinics in Indiana. With so few options, the new law could turn even more women away, forcing women to carry pregnancies to term that they do not want.
Of course, that's exactly what anti-choice activists want: to force women to remain pregnant, no matter what it costs the woman or her baby. When the baby is born, most anti-choice activists seem to believe it ceased to be a person, arguing instead that women should have “thought about their choices” and should not receive the sort of governmental assistance that could prevent them from falling deep into poverty.
Think this is just more pro-choice rhetoric? Think again. A well-respected ongoing study known colloquially as the Turnaway Study has documented that women denied abortions suffered mental and physical health issues, were more likely to live in poverty, more likely to rely on government assistance, and less likely to be gainfully employed.
Anti-choicers don't care. They'll continue to work to punish women, no matter how doing so affects their children.
If you live in Indiana and need access to a safe, legal abortion, Abortion Clinics Online maintains a comprehensive, regularly updated list of options here.
