Indiana Abortion Ban: What Really Changed and Who It Affects

Abortion is a crime in Indiana unless it fits one of three exceptions in Ind. Code § 16-34-2-1: a threat to the mother’s life or a serious health risk, a lethal fetal anomaly, or pregnancy from rape or incest. The ban, Senate Enrolled Act 1, took effect on August 21, 2023, the day the Indiana Supreme Court denied rehearing and certified its ruling upholding the law.

The change in numbers is large. Indiana providers reported 9,529 abortions in 2022 and 126 in 2025. Almost all of the 2025 procedures were done in Marion County hospitals.

What Indiana Law Bans and the Three Exceptions

Section 16-34-2-1 opens by declaring that abortion “shall in all instances be a criminal act,” then lists the situations where it is allowed. The law starts from illegal and carves out exceptions, which is the reverse of how most other states write their statutes.

Governor Eric Holcomb signed the bill on August 5, 2022, and it was set to take effect September 15, 2022. A Monroe County judge blocked it a week later, and it stayed on hold for nearly a year while the state’s courts heard challenges.

Exception	Time limit	What the statute requires
Life or serious health risk	No week limit	Physician certifies in writing, with the supporting facts attached. Hospital or hospital-owned surgical center before 20 weeks; licensed hospital only after.
Lethal fetal anomaly	Before 20 weeks postfertilization (about 22 weeks from the last period)	Physician certifies the diagnosis in writing. The patient must first receive perinatal hospice information.
Rape or incest	First 10 weeks postfertilization (about 12 weeks from the last period)	Physician certifies in writing, with reasons attached. The statute asks for that certification, not a police report.

A fourth path exists in a narrow form. After 20 weeks, a lethal anomaly by itself no longer qualifies, but it can qualify if it creates a serious health risk to the mother.

What counts as a serious health risk

The statute defines it narrowly in Ind. Code § 16-18-2-327.9. It means a condition that complicates the mother’s medical condition and, in reasonable medical judgment, requires an abortion to prevent death or a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.

The definition excludes psychological or emotional conditions. It also excludes any claim or diagnosis that the woman will harm herself or end her own life. A diagnosis of that kind cannot be the basis for the exception.

The law does not list qualifying conditions, so the decision rests on the physician’s reasonable medical judgment, and the doctor carries the criminal risk if that judgment is later challenged.

What counts as a lethal fetal anomaly

A lethal fetal anomaly is a condition diagnosed before birth that will, with reasonable certainty, cause death within three months after a live birth. Conditions that are not lethal under that test do not qualify. The consent rules also state that abortion is not allowed solely because of a Down syndrome diagnosis or other disability.

Infographic showing the week limits for each Indiana abortion exception

Where Abortions Can Be Performed and the Pill Rule

Before 20 weeks, an abortion must take place in a hospital licensed under Indiana Code chapter 16-21 or in an ambulatory outpatient surgical center majority-owned by such a hospital. At or after 20 weeks, only a licensed hospital qualifies. Free-standing clinics cannot provide abortions.

Indiana’s six abortion clinics stopped providing abortions in late July 2023, before the ban took effect on August 21. Planned Parenthood centers in the state remain open for other services.

The Indiana Department of Health’s 2025 annual report shows how concentrated care became. Eight facilities reported terminations, and facilities in Marion County performed 118 of the 126 reported.

Abortion pills

Abortion-inducing drugs cannot be used after 8 weeks postfertilization. The physician must examine the patient in person, dispense the drug in person, and have the patient take it in the physician’s presence. Section 16-34-2-1(d) bars telehealth and telemedicine from being used for any abortion, including writing or filling a prescription meant to cause one.

Of the 126 abortions reported in 2025, 30 were nonsurgical and 96 were surgical.

Required Steps Before the Procedure

Each exception comes with consent steps in Ind. Code § 16-34-2-1.1. The required disclosures, brochure and certifications must be completed at least 18 hours before the abortion, so most patients make two trips.

Counseling, ultrasound and the 18-hour wait

The physician, or a delegated physician assistant, advanced practice nurse or certified nurse midwife, gives the disclosures privately and in person. The provider must also ask privately whether anyone is coercing the patient. A fetal ultrasound is performed at the same visit, and the patient must be offered the chance to see the image and hear the heartbeat if it is audible. She can decline in writing.

The required disclosures include a state-written statement that human physical life begins at fertilization. These requirements apply to every exception, including rape and incest. The statute allows an exception to the consent conditions only for a medical emergency, which it does not define.

If a lethal fetal anomaly is diagnosed, the physician must also explain perinatal hospice services in person, at least 18 hours ahead, and give the patient the state brochure and provider list.

Minors under 18

An unemancipated minor needs notarized written consent from a parent, guardian or custodian who comes with her and shows government-issued photo ID. The physician keeps those records for at least seven years under Ind. Code § 16-34-2-4. A person who falsely claims to be the parent or guardian to get around the rule commits a Level 6 felony.

Parental consent does not apply when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest by the minor’s own parent, guardian or custodian. A minor can also ask the juvenile court for a waiver. The court must rule within 48 hours and waives consent if the minor is mature enough to decide for herself or if the abortion is in her best interests. If she has no lawyer, the court appoints one at county expense, and court records are confidential.

Penalties for Doctors and Hospitals

A person who knowingly or intentionally performs a prohibited abortion commits a Level 5 felony under § 16-34-2-7. Under Ind. Code § 35-50-2-6, a Level 5 felony carries a prison term of 1 to 6 years, with an advisory sentence of 3 years, and a fine of up to $10,000.

License consequences are separate. Under Ind. Code § 25-22.5-8-6, the Medical Licensing Board must revoke a physician’s license if the attorney general proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the physician performed an abortion in violation of § 16-34-2-7 with the intent to avoid the requirements of the abortion statute. A preponderance is a lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” used in criminal court. The board may also revoke a license for failing to send the state a terminated pregnancy report.

Violating the informed-consent rules in § 16-34-2-1.1 is a Class A infraction, a civil penalty rather than a felony.

Reporting and state oversight

Providers must file a terminated pregnancy report with the Department of Health within 30 days, or within three days if the patient is under 16, in which case a copy also goes to the Department of Child Services. On January 22, 2025, Governor Mike Braun signed Executive Order 25-20 directing state agencies to ensure the abortion laws are “fully and faithfully executed,” including report submission.

The health department’s July 1, 2025 report to the governor recommended fines for noncompliant hospitals and executive-level oversight of abortion matters. Enforcement had relied mostly on licensing actions and criminal referrals.

What Happens to Patients

The criminal penalty in § 16-34-2-7 is aimed at the person who performs the abortion, not the patient. The statute does not penalize a woman for having an abortion, and no Indiana law restricts travel to another state for one. People comparing options in the region can also check Wisconsin abortion laws before making plans.

Medical privacy rules shifted in 2025. On June 18, 2025, a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas vacated most of the 2024 HIPAA rule that had added protections for reproductive health information in Purl v. HHS. The earlier HIPAA framework, including its law enforcement and oversight exceptions, applies again unless an appeal changes that.

What the Numbers Show

Reported abortions in Indiana fell by roughly 98 percent between 2022 and 2025, according to health department reports. The ban took effect partway through 2023, which is why that year falls in between.

Year	Reported abortions	Context
2022	9,529	Last full year before the ban
2023	4,579	Ban in effect from August 21
2024	146	First full year under the ban
2025	126	76 lethal anomaly, 40 serious health risk, 6 rape or incest

Four 2025 reports combined categories: three listed both a health risk and a lethal anomaly, and one listed a health risk and rape or incest. In 2024, 93 of the 146 were for lethal fetal anomalies, 40 for health risk or life of the mother, and 9 for rape or incest.

Those counts cover only reports submitted to the state. Abortion pills mailed from out of state do not appear in them.

Bar chart of reported Indiana abortions falling from 9,529 in 2022 to 126 in 2025

Court Rulings That Shape the Ban

The health exception under the state constitution

In June 2023 the Indiana Supreme Court held that Article 1, Section 1 of the state constitution protects abortion that is necessary to save a woman’s life or protect her from a serious health risk. It sent providers back to trial court to bring narrower challenges. On August 21, 2023, it denied rehearing, and the ban took effect.

On August 11, 2025, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment against the providers. It held that the “reasonable medical judgment” standard and the hospital requirement do not materially burden the constitutional right. The Indiana Supreme Court declined in May 2026 to take up that challenge, which leaves the lower-court rulings in place.

The religious freedom case

A separate lawsuit rests on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, an Indiana law passed in 2015 that limits when the government can substantially burden a person’s religious exercise. The ACLU of Indiana filed it on September 8, 2022, for Hoosier Jews for Choice and several anonymous women whose faith, they say, can require ending a pregnancy in circumstances the ban prohibits.

The case moved through the courts in steps:

December 2, 2022: a Marion County court issued a preliminary injunction for the plaintiffs.
April 4, 2024: the Court of Appeals upheld that injunction and allowed the case to proceed as a class action.
December 10, 2024: the Indiana Supreme Court left the injunction in place and returned the case to the trial court.
March 5, 2026: Marion Superior Court Judge Christina Klineman granted a permanent injunction for the plaintiffs and the certified class.

The injunction bars the state from enforcing the ban against class members when doing so would substantially burden their sincere religious beliefs. It does not repeal the ban for everyone else. The attorney general appealed, and the Indiana Supreme Court agreed in April 2026 to hear the case directly.

The court heard argument on September 10, 2026, and has not set a timeline for a decision. The state argues the plaintiffs sued too early because they are not pregnant and seeking an abortion. It also argues a religious exemption undermines its compelling interest in protecting life. Justices asked both sides where such an exemption would end, including whether it would allow abortion at any point in pregnancy.

How hospitals and doctors apply the injunction to a specific patient is not spelled out in public court summaries. People who think they may be covered can contact the ACLU of Indiana at [email protected] and should ask their health care provider how the facility is handling requests.

Timeline of Indiana's religious freedom abortion lawsuit from 2022 to the 2026 Indiana Supreme Court argument

Traveling Out of State for Care

You may travel to another state for an abortion, and Indiana does not penalize it. Guttmacher Institute figures reported by CU Citizen Access show Indiana residents received abortion care in 2024 in neighboring states, including 8,010 patients in Illinois, 1,170 in Michigan and 900 in Ohio. If you are weighing care across state lines, our guide to Illinois abortion laws explains what is allowed there.

Champaign, Illinois, is the closest large option for many Hoosiers. Planned Parenthood of Illinois reported that 40 percent of its Champaign patients are from out of state, and 84 percent of those come from Indiana. Kentucky has no operating clinics, so patients there are traveling as well.

In 2025, Illinois provided about 32,000 abortions to out-of-state residents, close to a quarter of the 142,000 people nationwide who crossed state lines for care, according to Guttmacher.

Map showing Indiana residents traveling to Illinois, Michigan and Ohio for abortion care in 2024

Legislation That Did Not Become Law

The Indiana Senate passed Senate Bill 236 35 to 10 on January 27, 2026. It would have prohibited manufacturing, distributing, mailing, prescribing or possessing abortion-inducing drugs in Indiana and allowed civil suits, including awards of $100,000, against people who provided them, including out-of-state providers. It did not pass the House and did not become law.

A similar proposal could return in a later session, so the 8-week pill limit and the in-person rules above remain the rules in force.

Where to Get Help

Patients who qualify under an exception should ask a hospital’s patient services line whether it provides abortion care, since many hospitals do not. Planned Parenthood health centers cannot perform abortions in Indiana, but they can give referrals to providers in other states.

Funding and logistics help is available from All-Options, which runs Indiana’s abortion fund, and from the Chicago Abortion Fund, which helps Midwesterners travel to Illinois. For questions about the religious freedom injunction, contact the ACLU of Indiana.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is abortion completely illegal in Indiana?

No. It is legal when needed to save the mother’s life or prevent a serious health risk, for a lethal fetal anomaly before 20 weeks postfertilization, and for rape or incest in the first 10 weeks postfertilization. Each exception has to be certified in writing by the physician.

Can I be arrested for getting an abortion in Indiana?

The criminal penalty in Ind. Code § 16-34-2-7 applies to the person who performs a prohibited abortion, not the patient. Indiana law does not restrict traveling to another state for an abortion.

Do I need a police report to use the rape or incest exception?

No. The statute requires the physician to certify in writing that the abortion is at your request because of rape or incest, with the reasons attached. It does not require a police report. The exception ends after 10 weeks postfertilization, which is about 12 weeks from your last period.

Is there a waiting period in Indiana?

Yes. The required counseling, ultrasound offer and certifications must be completed at least 18 hours before the abortion. That usually means two trips to a hospital.

What are the penalties for a doctor who performs an illegal abortion?

A Level 5 felony, which carries 1 to 6 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The Medical Licensing Board must also revoke the license if the attorney general proves intent to avoid the law.

Does the religious freedom injunction apply to me?

It protects people whose sincere religious beliefs direct them to obtain an abortion the ban would otherwise prohibit. The Indiana Supreme Court heard the state’s appeal on September 10, 2026 and has not ruled, so contact the ACLU of Indiana at [email protected] for guidance on your situation.