Does A Woman Have To Report A Rape Or Incest To Have An Abortion In Indiana After September 15, 2022?
Effective September 15, 2022, Indiana imposes a near total ban on adoption, subject to a few narrow exceptions including abortion of a baby during the first 10 weeks of woman’s pregnancy if she got pregnant as a result of rape or incest. Indiana’s new abortion law does not require a conviction or even a reporting of the rape or incest by the pregnant woman, but Indiana Code § 16-18-2-306.7 expands the definition of “rape or incest” to include a child conceived as a result of sexual misconduct with a minor (IC § 35-42-4-9), child molesting (IC § 35-42-4-3), and child seduction (IC § 35-42-4-7).
Other provisions of Indiana Law such as IC §§ 31-32-11-1 and 31-33-5-1 may impose on the doctor the obligation to report to the department of child services or local law enforcement agency suspected child abuse or neglect. Incest, sexual misconduct with a minor, child molestation, and child seduction may fall into the category of reportable offenses.
Additionally, IC § 16-34-2-1 (a)(2)(D) requires the physician to certify in writing to the hospital or surgical center the facts and reasons supporting the doctor’s certification, which presumably includes facts about the rape or incest.
Lastly, a doctor who performs an abortion without complying with IC § 16-34-2-1 commits a criminal act, which could subject the doctor to civil and criminal penalties and forfeiture of their license to practice medicine. The reporting requirements imposed on the physician under § 16-34-2-5 seem designed to substantiate how the abortion fits within the exceptions of the total ban on abortion imposed by Indiana statutes.
A woman facing an untimely pregnancy, unplanned pregnancy, or unwanted pregnancy has choices to parenting the child, which includes putting the baby up for adoption, or more correctly, making an adoption plan for the baby.
If you would like to explore adoption, we, at Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C. — or the “Kirsh Boys,” as the adoption attorneys at Kirsh & Kirsh are sometimes called – Steve, and his brothers, Joel and Rob, and his son, Grant, pride themselves on answering questions about adoption and explaining the process without pressure or judgment.
Our contact information is below. We will answer your questions and provide you the information you seek, without cost or obligation on your part. In other words, talking to us is FREE and does NOT mean you ever have to talk or text with us, again. We can help you in finding an AMAZING, WONDERFUL, adoptive home for your precious baby, whether you live in Lebanon or Indianapolis, Richmond or Bloomington, Evansville or Washington, South Bend or Merrillville, Angola or Ft. Wayne, or any Indiana county or city in between, or ANYWHERE in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, or Michigan.
There is always a family waiting to love your child. We have lots of family options from which you can choose, all of whom are wonderful, carefully screened, loving families, FROM INDIANA AND ALL OVER THE COUNTRY (married, single, Lesbian, and Gay) who cannot wait to welcome a baby into their hearts and homes and are happy to assist with living expenses to the fullest extent allowed by law. You make all the choices which family adopts your baby & extent of contacts you want after the child’s birth.
You can call, text and or email us anytime – call/text: 800-333-5736, contact us, or Facebook message. We answer our office phone 24 hours a day, every single day. We try to respond to emails and text messages within minutes of receipt.
POSITIVE ADOPTION LANGUAGE DISCLAIMER: Please understand that these blog posts are written in a way to use language that people use when searching for help with their adoption plans. Unfortunately, while all of us understand what positive adoption language means, most expectant moms that come to us at first do not understand what that means. The most common search term on the Internet for expectant moms is “how do I give up my baby for adoption”. If we do not include those words in our blog posts, and instead put “how do I create an adoption plan for my baby” then our website will not show up in most expectant moms’ search results on Google.