A 10-year-old girl from Ohio traveled to Indiana for an abortion when she was denied an abortion in the state after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe vs Wade decision last week.
10-year-old travels to Indiana for an abortion
The Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn the monumental 1973 case affects both people and health care providers. People are traveling across the US to get an abortion.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana, revealed that she recently terminated a pregnancy for a 10-year-old girl. The girl traveled from Ohio to get the procedure.
A child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted Dr. Bernard after receiving a 10-year-old pregnant patient, the Indianapolis Star reported. This is following the SCOTUS ruling outlawing abortions after six weeks in the state. The little girl was six weeks and three days pregnant.
While abortion is currently legal in Indiana, Dr. Bernard is worried about the future. State lawmakers are planning to further restrict or ban the procedure during the special session of the Indiana General Assembly on July 25.
“It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care,” she stated.
The aftermath of the ruling
Abortion providers in Indiana are seeing an influx of out-of-state patients following the new ruling. Dr. Katie McHugh, an Indiana ob-gyn revealed she is fielding an “insane amount of requests” from Kentucky and Ohio. Out-of-state calls for the procedures are jumping between 5 to 20 every day.
The Supreme Court ruling reversed almost 50 years of precedent, giving states the ability to pass their laws on abortion. Following the decision, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and South Dakota have already banned abortion in their states
“The most important thing to be clear about is I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law,” he said firmly. “The way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that, and if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights – it should be [that] we provide an exception to this … requiring an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision”, stated President Biden. He promised to share more news after a meeting with some governors.
