Indiana Is Latest State to Try to Criminalize Abortion Pills

As of this week, Indiana has become the latest state to try to criminalize possession of abortion pills, as part of an appallingly comprehensive new anti-abortion bill. The bill, filed by state Sen. Mike Young (R), would make it a misdemeanor to prescribe or possess medication abortion, though it carves out an exception for pregnant people who already have the pills.

In 2024, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to enact such a law and, in November, Texas Republicans pre-filed an identical bill. Both pieces of legislation nonsensically classify abortion pills as dangerous, “Schedule IV” drugs, eerily wielding the tactics of the War on Drugs. In Louisiana, now that mifepristone pills aren’t readily available to them, hospitals are scrambling to figure out how to save lives if patients experience postpartum hemorrhaging.

Now, Indiana is following suit. While all three bills offer a stated exception for someone imminently about to take the pills, this policy remains incredibly dangerous. After Donald Trump won reelection, consequently threatening access to abortion pills in all states, organizations like Plan C Pills called on pregnant-capable people to buy medication abortion in advance while you can, whether you’re pregnant or not. These laws could criminalize this.

Indiana's same, wide-reaching bill, SB 171, would also make it illegal for organizations like abortion funds to pay for or subsidize the costs of medication abortion, and would give Indiana’s attorney jurisdiction over criminal cases involving medication abortion should local prosecutors decline to prosecute these cases. And, in an especially cruel feature of SB 171, it would further narrow the rape exception attached to the state’s existing abortion ban, requiring that if a survivor wants an abortion, they have to provide their doctor with an affidavit and potentially face perjury penalties for supposed false reports. 

Just as SB 171 follows a growing trend of states trying to criminalize the mere possession of abortion pills, it also follows a trend of anti-abortion state legislatures either outright rejecting rape exceptions to abortion bans or establishing invasive, retraumatizing, or downright impossible barriers to these exceptions. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana OBGYN who became the target of terrifying right-wing smear campaigns when she offered abortion care to a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim in 2022, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that the bill will retraumatize victims who “are more likely to not seek care if they know they will be forced to go through this agonizing process.” 

SB 171 also comes as more and more anti-abortion lawmakers are targeting the mere act of helping someone access abortion, whether through legal threats or lawsuits against abortion funds, or bills to criminalize helping someone travel across state lines for care. The goal is transparently to trap as many people as possible under abortion bans.

The Chronicle reports that, terrifying as SB 171 is, it faces an “uncertain” future, since Sen. Young “has clashed with caucus leadership over Indiana’s abortion ban” before. Further, Haley Bougher, Indiana State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, told the outlet the bill is legally dubious. “This legislation is riddled with constitutional challenges and legal enforceability, as it infringes on the right to travel and access legal care in other states,” Bougher said. “These measures are duplicative, wasteful and show just how far extremists will go.” So, there's that!