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State reports slight increase in Indiana abortions for 2020

July 10, 2021 GMT

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2019 file photo, abortion protesters attempt to handout literature as they stand in the driveway of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis. A federal judge has blocked a new Indiana law that would require doctors to tell women undergoing drug-induced abortions about a disputed treatment for potentially stopping the abortion process. The ruling Wednesday, June 30, 2021, came just before the so-called abortion reversal law adopted by Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature was to take effect Thursday. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The number of abortions performed in Indiana grew slightly last year, with a new state report showing that drug-induced abortions made up a majority of the procedures for the first time.

The annual report from the state health department shows that the number of abortions in Indiana grew by 119, or 1.6%, to 7,756 during 2020. That increased number remained below the some 8,000 performed in 2018, Indiana’s highest number since 2014.

Drug-induced abortions represented 55% of Indiana’s total, up from 44% during 2019 and about double the state’s rate from 2016.

Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed a law this year aimed at requiring doctors to tell women undergoing such abortions about a disputed “abortion reversal” treatment for potentially stopping the process. That law, however, was blocked by a federal judge just before it was set to take effect July 1.

Indiana recorded about 79,000 live births last year.

Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter blamed the abortion increase on several anti-abortion laws passed by state legislators being blocked by federal courts.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Nicole Erwin said the COVID-19 pandemic added pressure to many women facing unintended pregnancies and that making contraception more accessible and affordable was the best way to reduce such pregnancies.