Sunday, June 23
3:00 pm
Monument Circle
Pull up, show out, and fight for abortion rights!
Join PSL Indianapolis on June 23rd to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the deeply undemocratic Dobbs v. Jackson ruling and learn more about the ways we can reinvigorate the fight for abortion rights, sign our petition to put an abortion referendum on the ballot, and be in community with others who are just as passionate about this struggle as you!
In the time since Roe v. Wade was overturned, 28 out of 50 states have moved to either restrict access to abortion care or ban it all together. Indiana legislators announced that they would be the first to construct new legislation after the landmark Supreme Court ruling, a decision that resulted in thousands of Hoosiers protesting outside of the Statehouse for weeks leading up to the final vote on the legislation. Over that summer, our representatives blatantly ignored the mass protests occurring directly outside of their doors, stifled public comment, and ultimately ended up passing some of the harshest, most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
SB 1, which has been in effect since August 2023, completely outlaws abortion at any stage, with very limited exceptions for cases of fetal abnormalities, assault, and threats to the parent’s life. And even when patients are able to receive care via a legal exception, they are required to undergo unnecessary and invasive procedures beforehand, like mandatory counseling sessions and ultrasounds. As a result, these bans have been extremely effective in restricting Hoosier’s access to abortion care. In the first full report since the new laws went into effect, the Indiana Department of Health recorded 46 abortions between October 1 and December 31, 2023. In 2022, that number was 1,724.
But despite all of the pushback from the public, the months of demonstrations outside the statehouse, and clear data showing otherwise, our legislators maintain they were simply “acting in the interest of the people.” Why then, when asked about adding an abortion referendum to the 2022 ballot, did Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray dismiss the idea, essentially stating it was too difficult of a question to have on the ballots?
“Could you say—should abortion be legal? Should it be legal for the first trimester? Should abortion be illegal with exception of the life of the mother, or the life and health of the mother, or the life and health of the mother and rape and incest? And if you say rape and incest or life of the mother, how do you define life of the mother?”
In reality, the people of Indiana are not in support of criminalizing abortion. In the Bowen Center for Public Affairs’ most recent Hoosier Survey, nearly 60% of respondents stated that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The unfortunate truth is that our legislators have zero regard for what the people want.
But we cannot give up. We must continue to fight, to organize, and to struggle together. Our rights will be won back, not because a legislator gives them to us, but because we take them. If you are still angry, if you are still grieving, and if you are still ready to fight, we want you to fight with us.
Featured photo: Destiny Glover speaks at the rally. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.
