Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston says he’s confident the votes are there to pass an abortion bill Friday, even though a majority of his caucus voted to removes the exemptions for rape and incest.
The Indiana House of Representatives took its final step toward passage of legislation that would limit abortion in the state as well as provide Hoosiers with inflation relief.
Lawmakers beat back an amendment that would have eliminated exemptions for both rape and incest.
The vote was 39 to 61.
That vote breakdown could put the final bill in jeopardy if the 39 Republicans continued to vote no because they did not think the bill went far enough and were joined by the Democrats, who all voted no.
The following changes have been made to the bill.
- The amendment allows abortion up to 20 weeks “to prevent a substantial permanent impairment to the life *or physical health*” of the mother. The Senate bill covered only the risk of death.
- The amendment removes the rape/incest affidavit requirement. It also removes provisions allowing the Attorney General to prosecute cases if the local prosecutor won’t (the House has rejected that idea twice before).
- In lieu of AG jurisdiction, the bill sets up an 11-member panel to report to the legislature by year’s end on how many times a prosecutor has refused to act.
- The bill allows rape/incest victims to seek abortion within ten weeks. The Senate bill set an 8-week limit for victims over 16, and 12 weeks for those under 16.
- Abortions are still permitted in cases of severe fetal anomaly
- .The amendment adds language to the bill that *explicitly* says the abortion ban does NOT apply to in vitro fertilization.
If the House does pass SB 1 tomorrow, due to changes made, it will have to go back to the Senate.
You can here Speaker Huston as well as abortion bill sponsor Wendy McNamara in the Leon-Tailored Audio above,.
It runs for about eight minutes.
