Indiana abortion debate draws protest crowds, vice president
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people arguing the abortion issue surrounded the Indiana Statehouse and filled its corridors Monday as state lawmakers began consideration of a Republican proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state and Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the effort during a meeting with Democratic legislators.
Harris said during a trip to Indianapolis that the abortion ban proposal reflects a health care crisis in the country. Despite the bill's abortion ban language, anti-abortion activists lined up before a legislative committee to argue that the bill wasn't strict enough and lacked enforcement teeth.
Indiana is one of the first Republican-run state legislatures to debate tighter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
"Maybe some people need to actually learn how a woman's body works," Harris said Monday, eliciting murmurs and laughs from the Democratic legislators. "The parameters that are being proposed mean that for the vast majority of women, by the time she realizes she is pregnant, she will effectively be prohibited from having access to reproductive health care that will allow her to choose what happens to her body."
Confrontations erupted periodically between antiabortion and abortion-rights demonstrators around the Indiana Statehouse. One person carrying a message on cardboard — "Forced Birth Is Violence" — followed a man, who carried a fake red fetus in a plastic bag over his shoulder, and tried to obscure his sign that read "Save Our Babies."
Some people had virulent arguments encircled by other demonstrators
"You think you should dictate my life and my kids' lives. That's what you're saying," Kait Schultz, who wore a dark gray "Pregnant and Pissed" shirt, shouted to Christopher Monaghan.
"You don't want to have a conversation," Monaghan replied as they spoke over each other. He held a vertical sign that read "Babies Lives Matter."
Elsewhere Monday, Lawmakers in West Virginia's Republican majority hurried to advance legislation that would criminalize abortion with few exceptions. A bill introduced Monday makes providing an abortion a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison. It provides exceptions only in cases where there is an ectopic pregnancy, a "nonmedically viable fetus" or a medical emergency.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice abruptly added state abortion law to the state's Legislature's agenda for a special session he called for Monday to focus on his income tax cut plan.