The second-quarter report is the last with data entirely from before the abortion ban’s effectiveness date. Photo from Getty Images.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Indiana abortion clinics and hospitals performed fewer than 2,000 abortions from April through June — the lowest since 2019 — according to a new quarterly report.

Although Indiana’s near-total abortion ban officially went into effect in August, for nearly a year beforehand a legal fight kept enforcement on hold. During that time, the state’s previous abortion law stood — allowing the procedures up to 20 weeks post-fertilization.

From April through June, providers recorded 1,937 abortions, the lowest since 2019’s 1,935, according to the Indiana Department of Health’s second-quarter Terminated Pregnancy Report.

In contrast, second-quarter abortions topped 2,000 during the three years in between: 2020, 2021 and 2022.

About 81% were performed on Indiana residents. Hoosiers accounted for 1,556 of the procedures — a marked drop from 2022’s 2,224 abortions and still less than 2019’s 1,751 abortions.

Driving the total was a markedly higher proportion of out-of-state patients, continuing a trend that began in 2022.

About 87% of those who traveled from out of state came from Kentucky. Significantly smaller numbers of people traveled from Ohio, Tennessee and elsewhere.

Who’s getting abortions?

The average abortion patient was a 29-year-old woman, according to the report.

They generally obtained abortions early. About 60% of the procedures were performed at eight weeks of gestation or less, and another 38% were done from nine through 13 weeks of gestation. Gestational age is generally two weeks greater than the post-fertilization age used in law.

For 68% of patients, it was a first abortion. Nearly 20% said they’d previously experienced a miscarriage or other spontaneous termination.

Most patients (62%) were parents to at least one living child, although the vast majority were not married at the time of their procedures (85%).

Patients were mostly white (44%) or Black (36%). About 13% were of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

And 81% had at least a high school diploma or equivalent, although just 20% had an associate’s degree or higher. Education was unknown for 11%.

Also during the period, patients in 37 cases reported complications, according to a separate quarterly complications report.

Seventeen patients experienced incomplete abortions, in which some tissue remains and can cause infection or other harm. An additional 16 experienced failed terminations, and several more reported infection or vaginal bleeding. One experienced psychological complications.

For 28 cases, patients required surgical intervention. Significantly fewer received blood transfusions or other treatments.

Most filings, 30, arose from medication abortions. The method is more common in Indiana than surgical abortions.

Who’s performing abortions?

Abortion clinics have long performed almost all of Indiana’s abortions — but that will change in next quarter’s report, which will be the first to reflect the full impacts of Indiana’s abortion ban.

Six clinics accounted for 97% of the abortions done in Indiana from April through June, according to the second-quarter report.

Eight hospitals recorded the remaining 3%, or 54 procedures. The Riley Health Maternity Hospital in Indianapolis, alongside the city’s Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, performed the majority.

Abortions remain legal in Indiana under narrow exemptions: serious physical health risk to the mother, or fatal fetal anomaly.  Rape survivors can also get an abortion up to 10 weeks post-fertilization.

The ban, however, outlawed abortion clinics.

And many hospitals, particularly those with religious affiliations, say they don’t perform elective abortions in any cases — meaning they only go through with abortions to save the mother’s life.