Whole Woman's Health clinic in South Bend to stay open despite Indiana abortion ban
SOUTH BEND — Whole Woman’s Health — South Bend’s only abortion clinic — will not close this week despite Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.
Instead, the clinic will focus on connecting pregnant people with resources to find legal abortion services in nearby states and on fighting a law in Indiana that Whole Woman's Health Alliance CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller called cruel and unjust.
"Whole Woman's Health Alliance is not leaving Indiana," Hagstrom Miller said in a press conference Wednesday. "We will work to shift the shame and stigma that leads politicians to pass bans like this in the first place, and we will always center abortion as the good, moral and essential health care that it is."
The state’s new law, taking effect Thursday, will ban abortion at any term except in the case of rape or incest at up to 10 weeks, or in the event of fatal fetal anomalies, or if the life or health of the mother is threatened.
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Under the new law, any abortions taking place in Indiana must be performed in hospitals or ambulatory outpatient centers — placing the future of Indiana's seven abortion clinics, including Whole Woman's Health, in question.
Doctors who perform abortions outside of an approved setting could face one to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Whole Woman's Health clinic to remain open
Whole Woman’s Health will not practice abortions in Indiana, but will "maintain a couple of the same staff," its CEO said, and will remain open to provide ultrasounds, pregnancy tests and contraception as well as to offer counseling, referrals to states where abortion is legal and follow-up care for those returning to Indiana after an abortion.
The alliance — which is headquartered in Virginia and operates clinics in four states outside of Indiana — has seen an uptick in calls across the country with questions about abortion access, and Hagstrom Miller said she worries about clinics' ability to keep up.
"If you shutter abortion access to 13 or 14 states, there's no way all the people who need access to safe abortion can travel and can obtain that abortion in the remaining states," she said. "This is going to have a huge impact on public health on maternal mortality, on pregnancy outcomes for generations."
Dr. Meera Shah, co-medical director for Whole Woman's Health of South Bend, was quick to note Wednesday who will be most affected by abortion restrictions and bans like those in Indiana.
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"These harms will fall hardest on people of color, immigrants, the economically disadvantaged and other marginalized communities, exacerbating further the suffering that they have endured under the many other laws and policies enacted by those responsible for attacks on abortion rights and access," Shah said. "It saddens me, being forced by small-minded, short-sighted and uncaring politicians, to tell the people who come to me for counsel, comfort, compassion and care that my hands are tied and I'm severely limited in what I can do to help them."
The alliance’s Virtual Care program, which offers medication abortion by mail, operates nearest Indiana in Illinois. The program is also available in Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia and New Mexico. The program offers telemedicine care within these five states for up to 11 weeks of pregnancy.
Patients must be physically in one of these five states at the time of their telehealth appointment and must have deliveries shipped to an address — either via a friend, general delivery or a post office box — if seeking medicine by mail.
Whole Woman's Health clinics in four cities — Baltimore, Minneapolis, Alexandria, Va., and Charlottesville, Va., — will remain open, and the alliance’s Abortion Wayfinder Program will help those in states with restrictions to plan flights, hotel stays and local support for out-of-state trips.
Through the support of national abortion funds and local groups like the Hoosier Abortion Fund, Whole Woman's Health may be able to help pregnant people finance all or part of the costs required to travel and seek legal abortion services.
Indiana ban facing multiple legal challenges
The Whole Woman’s Health Alliance joined a lawsuit late last month challenging Indiana’s abortion ban, arguing it "violates both the Indiana Constitution’s right to privacy and equal privileges protections.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is leading the legal effort.
Whole Woman's Health was joined in the lawsuit by the Planned Parenthood chapter representing Indiana and other medical providers in the state. The group estimates about 1.5 million Hoosiers of reproductive age would be affected by the new law.
Whole Woman’s Health, since its clinic began operating in South Bend in 2019, estimates it has provided services for more than 1,100 patients.
Another challenge:Lawsuit claims Indiana abortion ban runs afoul of RFRA
A second lawsuit, filed last week, challenges the law on the grounds that it violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. That lawsuit — brought by five women and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice, and prepared by the ACLU — states Indiana’s abortion law runs contrary to Jewish belief that “a fetus attains the status of a living person only at birth,” and maintains that “abortions may occur, and should occur, as a religious matter.”
"We are used to uphill battles," said Sharon Lau, who is the Midwest advocacy director for Whole Woman's Health Alliance. "We will not stop fighting alongside the people and families and communities we serve until the their full rights and access to care they need have been completely restored."
Tribune reporter Jordan Smith contributed to this story.
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Whole Woman's Health clinic to stay open despite Indiana abortion ban
