Indiana abortion-inducing drug ban passes Senate, heads to House

(INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — Legislation that would let anyone sue over the illegal use of abortion-inducing drugs in Indiana — with the potential to earn at least $100,000 a pop — cleared the Senate on Tuesday in a 35-10 vote, largely along party lines.

One Republican, Indianapolis Sen. Kyle Walker, joined all Democrats present in opposition.

“The minimum damages award is paid directly by the defendant — the manufacturer, the distributor, the provider or aider and abettor — not by pregnant women, taxpayers or the state,” said Republican Sen. Tyler Johnson, a physician from Leo.

“It is the violator who bears the cost, creating a powerful deterrent against illegal trafficking of these life-ending drugs,” he told colleagues on the Senate floor.

His Senate Bill 236 would prohibit manufacturing, distributing, mailing, prescribing or possessing abortion-inducing drugs in Indiana — with exceptions for a pregnant woman’s own actions, the drugs’ other uses, the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Anyone except the state and local governments could enforce the ban through two types of civil lawsuits. Those are explicitly barred from taking or threatening “direct or indirect enforcement.”

Offenses would carry a 20-year statute of limitations for lawsuits.

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