Hamilton: Pregnant people in Indiana are about to lose state privacy protections

Change is barreling toward Hoosiers, and it’s not good.

Last month, five radical members of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They stripped away a fundamental federal right, something never before done in our history.

Like many Bloomingtonians, I am personally shocked and angered that this actually just happened in our country. But we have to move quickly from shock and anger into action.

With national rights erased, we now depend on state laws to protect this basic right to privacy. And protect those who provide health services. Prospects for that in Indiana are grim.

We don’t know what legislation will be considered or passed in the Statehouse this week. But we know access to safe reproductive healthcare, including abortion, is in peril.

Letters:The sanctity of life, protesters at the Women's Care Center, IU and abortion

Gov. Eric Holcomb said he expects to sign any legislation that restricts an individual’s right to decide when and whether to have a family. State legislators seem determined to drag Indiana backward and impose ever more radical controls over very personal decisions.

Anyone in Indiana who can get pregnant now faces appalling prospects. As a mayor, I worry about all our residents facing dramatic invasions of their personal privacy and decision-making — low-income residents, university students, people starting their careers or families or just their own independent lives, and truly countless others.

I wish we could agree on this fundamental right to privacy, and most of us do. Unfortunately, many legislators are determined to impose their own religious or personal views to the contrary. But at the very least, surely our legislators can agree that Hoosiers should have access to contraception, including IUDs and emergency day-after contraception? Surely they can agree anyone who is pregnant should get medically necessary care? Or that we should be free to travel to another state for care? Or that a 10-year-old rape victim should not be forced to bear a child herself? Or a life-saving doctor pilloried on national TV?

We’ve already seen horrific instances to the contrary: a woman with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy had to leave her state when her doctor wouldn’t operate in the presence of a fetal heartbeat; a woman bled for 10 days after a miscarriage when emergency room personnel wouldn’t remove fetal tissue due to liability concerns; and of course, in our own state, we saw an outrageous assault on a physician who provided legal care to the 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio — requiring the vital, and brave, health care worker to get 24/7 security protection for herself and her family.

Our state government, whatever else it does, must take basic steps to assure decent health care and avoid barbaric examples like these.

More:More than 200 Indiana businesses sign ACLU letter opposing abortion restrictions

Virtually all of us know someone who chose to have an abortion. Failed contraception, health threats to the pregnant person, rape, incest, family circumstances, and many other reasons inform the decision. Always, the choice to end a pregnancy is fundamentally personal. Period.

We should do all we can to prevent Indiana from going backward. All Bloomingtonians who affirm this basic personal freedom should make our voices heard and our votes count. Contact state legislators and the governor. Join in rallies and phone banks. Donate money if we can. Help register voters and work on behalf of candidates who support personal freedom. Many of us will join thousands in Indianapolis for a statewide rally on Monday, July 25, demanding protection of these fundamental rights.

When individuals can make decisions about whether and when to become a parent, they can control their future, their health, and their economic security.

Keep government out of our bedrooms and bodies.

John Hamilton is mayor of Bloomington.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Column: Pregnant people in Indiana about to lose privacy protections