Op-Ed: So-called 'coerced abortion' bill is dangerous. But it’s just the beginning.

Alexandra McKinzie, Margaret Bello and Lucy Brown

House Bill 1217 is Indiana lawmakers’ latest attempt to restrict Hoosiers’ access to necessary reproductive resources. The bill is soon to be sent to Gov. Eric Holcomb's desk after a Senate vote last week.

This so-called 'coerced abortion' bill, “requires that a pregnant woman seeking an abortion must be informed that a coerced abortion is illegal…[and] mandates reports of coerced abortion to law enforcement.”

More:Senate votes to criminalize coerced abortion. Opponents say it stigmatizes the procedure.

On the surface, this bill is seemingly harmless and is something on which healthcare professionals and legislators can both agree no one should feel pressured, threatened, or forced to get an abortion.

Yet, Indiana code already has provisions that protect individuals from coercion, and physicians already screen for coercion as part of informed consent, making HB 1217 entirely unnecessary and redundant. If lawmakers were truly concerned about coerced abortion, they would address its root cause: domestic violence and abuse.

Coerced abortion is not an isolated phenomenon. The larger issue is that of sexual and reproductive coercion, where abusers attempt to control their partners’ pregnancy outcome, whether it be to continue or abort the pregnancy, such as sabotaging their partners’ birth control methods or otherwise forcibly impregnating them.

However, key factors in protecting a pregnant person are completely ignored in HB 1217. Instead, this blatant attempt to restrict reproductive health access by legislators is endangering victims of abuse by requiring mandatory reporting.

HB 1217 has nothing to do with the health and well-being of patients and everything to do with stigmatizing abortion and infringing upon the physician-patient relationship. Because Roe v. Wade is not codified in law, the only barrier between anti-abortion legislation and the public is legal precedent — clearly, Roe v. Wade is already not recognized as precedent by the majority of Indiana lawmakers, as evidenced by their call for a mandatory special session to ban abortion care outside of the regular legislative session.

Indiana legislators are taking the precariousness of Roe v. Wade as an opportunity to double down on their attacks on abortion care this session with several medically unnecessary restrictions, beginning with HB 1217.

More:Hundreds 'March for Life' as Indiana lawmakers hold off on major abortion legislation

Additionally, there are provisions in current Indiana law deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge, including the requirement that second trimester abortions be hospitalized, the ban on telemedicine, and the requirement that a person be examined in-person for medication abortion, among others. Should Roe v. Wade be completely overturned or undermined by the Supreme Court, a special legislative session could be called to ban abortion entirely in Indiana as early as this summer.

Polling is clear: this is not an issue that the American people want legislated.

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Nearly one in four women in America will have an abortion by the age of 45, and every individual's personal decision about their pregnancy — whether to parent, choose adoption, or have an abortion — should be respected and valued. Abortion access is not an issue that can wait; we must act now to prevent these restrictive laws from being passed in Indiana, and that means enshrining permanent abortion protections into our state constitution, as other states have begun to do. We must codify Roe v. Wade via an Indiana version of the Women’s Health Protection Act which would prohibit governmental restrictions on abortion services. Lastly, while we may not have the power to sway the opinion of the Supreme Court, we do have the power to sway the votes of those we have elected to represent our interests at the State House.

Alexandra McKinzie, Margaret Bello, and Lucy Brown are third-year medical students at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis