Indiana’s Planned Parenthood clinics are out of abortion appointments until the state’s near-total abortion ban goes into effect on or near August 1, the Indianapolis Star reported Tuesday. Last month, the Indiana state Supreme Court vacated an injunction that was keeping the state’s near-total abortion ban (the first law passed after Roe v. Wade fell) from going into effect.
Regional Planned Parenthood Chief Medical Officer Deborah Nucatola told the Star that the clinics will provide other reproductive healthcare services, but if potential patients don’t already have an appointment for their abortion, they won’t be able to get one at an Indiana Planned Parenthood. INeedAnA.com, one of the best ways to find out where to get an abortion in America, still lists Clinic For Women, an independent operation, in Indianapolis as able to provide first-trimester abortion care.
Patients will be unable to get abortions in Indiana after August 1, because the 2022 law bans abortion completely, except for victims of rape or incest (who may access abortions up to 10 weeks) and patients with severe fetal anomalies (who have up to 20 weeks). The law also bans abortion clinics. Instead, abortion care in the limited circumstances in which it will be allowed will have to be provided in hospitals or hospital-owned outposts.
“To anyone looking for abortion care, Planned Parenthood’s staff is ready to help them find an appointment and provide the information and resources needed to access care,” the organization said in a press release.
Planned Parenthood said its Indiana locations have become a haven for patients from other states. The Star reported that, this year, they have provided “double” the amount of abortion pills and 160 percent more surgical abortions to out-of-state patients.
In August 2022, Gov. Eric Holcolmb (R) signed the bill, which activists then successfully sued to put on hold for months. At the time, all 11 Democrats in the Indiana state Senate, as well as eight Republicans, opposed the bill. Indiana state Sen. Vaneta Becker (R) was one of the Republicans who voted against it. “I don’t think people are taking into consideration how their constituents feel about this bill,” Becker told Politico at the time. “I think it’s going to be an ongoing challenge for Republicans.”