The overturning of Roe v. Wade has kickstarted many new laws on abortion. Since my last publication covering the original overturning of Roe v. Wade, many new developments have occurred.

To begin, Lindsey Graham, a Republican United States Senator, proposed a new abortion bill on September 13, 2022. If passed, this bill would ban abortion nationwide after just fifteen weeks of pregnancy. As a result, no state legislators would have the choice to fully allow abortion rights to the citizens of said state. Basically, no woman in the United States would be able to have an abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy, if at all.

By banning all abortions after fifteen weeks, a woman would have to carry her pregnancy to term, even if her baby was guaranteed to die after being born. In addition, any woman who found out about her pregnancy after fifteen weeks would not even have the option of legal abortion. This bill would narrow the freedom of every state to choose whether to allow abortion or not. This proposal has even further increased the stress on many Americans. First of all, most women will have their bodily rights torn away from them even more severely than before. Secondly, the Republican party is expecting this bill proposes to prove detrimental to their party during midterm elections, as Democrats will be able to use it as proof of the Republican party’s attempt to restrict abortion access nationwide.

Adding to this, Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban on September 15, 2022, as scheduled. The exceptions to this ban are rape and incest, but even those exceptions are capped at ten weeks. Abortions can only be performed in hospitals, and only if it is a “medical emergency”. Due to this development, the bodily autonomy of about 1.5 million women has now been ripped away.

Representative Sue Errington of the 34th district in Indiana said, “Hoosier women have lost a fundamental right to privacy in medical decisions with this near-total ban, which is extremely cruel. I’m old enough to remember before Roe v Wade. And I know that laws like this only ban safe legal abortion. Women are going to suffer, and some will die from this.” Just like I emphasized in my first article, banning abortion will not stop abortions, but instead just make it more likely for women to resort to illegal and unsafe methods of abortion.

If Lindsey Graham’s bill is passed, as it most likely will be, abortion rights will decrease even further. For those of us in Indiana, this feels a lot more real now that abortion is nearly completely banned in Indiana. This fact is scary and extremely upsetting. Abortion laws seem to be heading downhill, and something has to change. With the midterm elections coming up, those of you who can vote must take that opportunity to make your vote. Every vote counts and can help encourage change to take place. This has to be stopped before the remainder of women’s rights are taken away. Though this situation feels hopeless, the citizens of America must hold on to the hope that these situations can, and will, change. We must continue to put in work and speak up to make that change.