On January 22nd, the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, one hour before the Indiana March for Life, Governor Mike Braun signed Executive Order 25-20 directing the Indiana Department of Health to ensure compliance with all state pro-life laws, including releasing the Termination of Pregnancy Reports.
For the past year, the Department of Health has not been releasing the full reports due to “privacy concerns” with the falling number of abortions in the state, rather only releasing aggregate reports. Having access to these anonymous reports is a huge win for the life movement, ensuring accountability for the doctors and hospitals performing abortions in the state so that they are strictly following the law and only performing abortions due to lethal fetal abnormality, rape, insect, or the life and health of the mother. Termination of Pregnancy Reports (TPR) also can help improve maternal health and life by collecting data on maternal health and life factors. These reports are vital to the protection of Indiana women and ensure that the public can see that the laws are absolutely being followed.
The order states that the purpose of the TPR’s are, “First, ‘the improvement of maternal health and life through the compilation of relevant maternal health and life factors and data’ and second, ‘to monitor all abortions performed in Indiana to assure that abortions are done only under authorized provisions of the law.”
Governor Braun’s Executive Order is a huge win for protecting life and ensuring that the hard-fought pro-life laws in Indiana are being followed to protect both women and their babies. Right to Life of Northeast Indiana thanks Governor Braun for helping Indiana continue to cultivate a culture of life as well as all the lawmakers who worked to put laws protecting life on the books, saving thousands of babies from abortion and fathers and mothers from the pain of abortion.
Executive Order 25-20 makes Indiana safer for women and their children. One life taken is one too many, and we will continue to advocate for the unborn, their mothers and fathers, and support families so that abortion becomes unthinkable.
Read the full Executive Order here.
