As thousands joined the annual March for Life at both the state and national levels, the Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) was tracking bills related to the dignity of human life in this year’s rapidly moving legislative session. A bill related to the regulation of chemical abortion as well as two measures aimed at introducing new death penalty methods are of prime concern for the ICC as the 2026 Indiana General Assembly reaches its halfway point. “Upholding the profound dignity of the human person from conception to natural death is of critical importance to the Catholic Church, and that principle also guides the ICC in our policy work,” said Alexander Mingus, executive director of the ICC, the official public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Indiana. “Although we have seen great strides since the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision, it’s clear that there are still a lot of hearts and minds that need to be changed in our culture.” One such example is the ongoing debate over access to abortion in Indiana, particularly as it pertains to chemical abortion, also known as medication abortion. A measure moving through the Statehouse, Senate Bill 236, seeks additional oversight and regulation of abortion practices, including the use of mail-order abortion medications from other states. An illustration shows a paper bag containing the mifepristone and misoprostol pills used for a chemical abortion, follow-up instructions and small warming packs. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters) In 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court returned regulation of abortion to the states, Indiana placed significant restrictions on the practice that encompassed both surgical and chemical abortions. While most abortions are now illegal in the state of Indiana, there are exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies, pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. Medication abortion, which involves the ingestion of two pills – mifepristone and misoprostol – over a 48-hour period, is not permitted past the 10th week of pregnancy for any reason and is prohibited by mail order from other states. Yet increasing numbers of women in Indiana are seeking to obtain the combination of abortion pills from out-of-state sources. The author of Senate Bill 236, Senator Tyler Johnson (R-Leo), is an emergency room physician in northeast Indiana who shared his concerns about the safety of medication abortion during a recent hearing on his bill. Johnson described how he had recently treated a woman in the emergency room suffering from serious complications of the abortion pills and how she said no one had warned her about the potential side effects, which can include severe pain and bleeding. “These drugs aren’t safe to be mailed across Indiana,” Johnson said in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, January 21. “They’re not safe to be given over telehealth (calls). They’re not safe to just randomly prescribe through an internet website. That’s the heart of what we’re getting to.” Senate Bill 236 also would allow for civil actions to be brought against manufacturers or distributors of abortion medications for what a plaintiff would consider personal injury or wrongful death from the use of the drugs. In addition, the bill seeks to add oversight for terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs), which are routinely filed with the Indiana Department of Health for every abortion performed in the state. Senate Bill 236 proposes that TPRs, which keep patients’ names confidential, also would go to the Office of the Inspector General. Numerous opponents of the bill who testified before the committee, including some physicians, argued that the measure would have a chilling effect on doctors providing what they consider necessary medical care. But the bill’s co-author, Senator Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne), maintained the opposite. “The chilling effect will be on people who are providing abortions illegally and illegally prescribing and/or mailing these abortion pills into this state,” Sen. Brown told the committee. “We’re a pro-life state. We’re always going to be a pro-life state as long as this legislature is the way it is today.” Despite the opposition to Senate Bill 236, the judiciary committee voted 7-4 to pass the measure and send it to the Indiana Senate floor. In a recent ICC podcast, Mingus said he anticipates additional changes to the bill as the full Senate considers it. “Conceptually, it’s moving in the right direction,” Mingus said. “If structured correctly, this bill will help close the gap on the regulation of chemical abortion for the sake of protecting women and pre-born babies.” Mingus and Roarke LaCoursiere, associate director of the ICC, are also carefully monitoring two bills aimed at expanding the methods that Indiana uses to carry out the death penalty. Senate Bill 11, authored by Senator Mike Young (R-Indianapolis), proposes a firing squad as an alternative to the only current method of capital punishment in Indiana – lethal injection. Young argues that the high cost of the drugs involved, along with their limited shelf life, are complicating factors driving the need for an additional execution method. A file photo shows the lethal-injection chamber at the federal correction facility in Terre Haute, Ind. (OSV News photo/Federal Bureau of Prisons) The bill would authorize the death penalty to be carried out by firing squad if execution by lethal injection could not occur due to unavailability of the required drug – or if the condemned person requests it instead of lethal injection. The ICC was among those testifying against the bill in a recent committee hearing. The measure never came up for a vote and has now stalled at the Statehouse. But a more expansive death penalty bill is moving through the opposite chamber of the state legislature. House Bill 1119, authored by Representative Jim Lucas (R-Seymour), proposes nitrogen hypoxia – lethal gas – as an additional method of execution for Indiana, along with the firing squad. The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee passed the bill on an 8-5 vote, sending it to the full House for additional debate. The ICC strongly objected to the bill during the January 22 committee hearing. In her testimony, LaCoursiere reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty in any form and added that these proposed new methods only underscore the “brutality and savagery” of capital punishment. Currently, only five states allow firing squad as a legal execution method: Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina. An equal number permit the gas chamber: Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Although use of lethal gas is exceedingly rare even in the states that allow it, LaCoursiere pointed to a recent example in Alabama in which eyewitnesses reported a condemned man struggling for 30 minutes in the gas chamber before he was pronounced dead. “(With nitrogen hypoxia), we would be asking the executioners to administer a method to humans that we do not even use to euthanize animals anymore due to the distress it causes them in the process,” LaCoursiere said. In their recent podcast, she and Mingus urged the Catholic faithful to stay engaged on these bills during this short session of the state legislature, which is set to conclude by the end of February. “Above all, please pray for us and our state legislators and all those who are advocating for the dignity of human life,” Mingus said. To follow priority legislation of the ICC, visit indianacc.org. This website includes access to ICAN, the Indiana Catholic Action Network, which offers the Church’s position on key issues. Those who sign up for ICAN receive alerts on legislation moving forward and ways to contact their elected representatives. The post Chemical Abortion, Death Penalty Key Life Issues for ICC appeared first on Today's Catholic. ...read more read less