Abortion rights activists gathered at the Tippecanoe County courthouse Tuesday night to protest the U.S Supreme Court draft decision striking down federal abortion protections.
On Monday, a draft version of the decision leaked. That led Susan Rowe to organize the event. She said taking away abortion rights scares her.
“It doesn’t mean they are going to go away. It just means they are no longer going to be safe,” she said. “More women will die, that’s the answer, more women will die.”
State Rep. Chris Campbell (D-West Lafayette) attended the protest. She said Indiana legislators will move quickly to outlaw abortion if states are given the power to decide.
“With the supermajority in the House and the Senate right now they could pass it, and we have no options but Indiana would become a state where abortion is illegal,” she said.
Campbell said there are many options to reduce abortions in Indiana beyond banning them.
“I think there are so many things we could do to reduce abortions in Indiana,” she said. “Making it illegal will only make it dangerous for women. They will still be able to acquire things on the internet that may be questionable – that will put not only their lives in danger, but the lives of their baby they are trying to abort.”
“We could give more access to women for contraceptives, we could educate people, we could educate our children in schools instead of just teaching abstinence,” Campbell said. “We could have paid family medical leave, we could have access to health care for women in poverty…if you want those babies born, let's make sure those parents have support. I could go on and on.”
Emma Montes, a mother, attended the event with one of her children. Montes has placed one of her children up for adoption, and said that contributed to her “broad outlook on abortion.”
“The government doesn’t do jack sh*t for people with low income or mothers or single mothers,” she said. “If we had more programs, social programs, to help people from beginning to end I feel like it would be easier for women to be okay with this decision. It’s just not something that is feasible in our economy or in the way our country is being run right now.”
“I think a lot of women are pretty scared that if they are able to take this away from us and put us back even more… what is next in this cycle?” Montes added.
One hundred Indiana Republicans signed a lettercalling for a special session so the state can “align” its laws with the Supreme Court’s ruling if Roe v. Wade is struck down.