Republican Senator Mike Young has introduced a new bill in Indiana that would force women seeking an abortion under the state’s rape and incest exceptions to sign an affidavit and potentially face an investigation and penalties of perjury.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Indiana enacted an extreme abortion ban. Abortions are legal only in minimal cases, such as in the case of severe pregnancy complications or cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. However, for Young, the ban still isn’t extreme enough. He has even clashed with his fellow Republicans over his extreme stance on abortion. In 2022, when Republicans were crafting Indiana’s abortion legislation, Young proposed an amendment that would altogether remove the rape and incest exceptions. Eventually, he exited the Republican caucus when he failed to win support for eliminating the exceptions. Over the years, it appears he hasn’t relented in his quest to deny rape and incest survivors abortions. He recently introduced a new Senate bill that would re-traumatize and dissuade survivors from seeking an abortion under Indiana’s exceptions.
Mike Young seeks to dissuade survivors from seeking legal abortions
Recently, Young and Senator Gary Byrne introduced Senate Bill 171. The bill proposes banning all abortion procedures involving pills and tightening the exceptions for rape and incest survivors. Young has claimed that abortion pills are more dangerous than other procedures, even though Indiana physicians have pointed out that taking away abortion options for no other reason than “extreme ideology” will “lead to women dying.” However, that’s not even the darkest part of the bill. It also calls for obstacles for women seeking abortions under the rape and incest exceptions. The bill would require “a woman who is pregnant as a result of rape or incest to provide to her physician an affidavit attesting to the rape or incest before the physician performs the abortion.”
Furthermore, it would require women to sign “under penalties of perjury.” Essentially, women will have to sign a legal document about their sexual assault that could then be used against them in court. Meanwhile, it makes them vulnerable to charges of perjury, which is a felony and can come with a penalty of prison time or hefty fines. On TikTok, Aaron Parnas broke down the bill, explaining that the affidavit would “open up the victim to a possible investigation.” It’s not hard to see these affidavits being weaponized against women seeking or receiving an abortion. After all, the vast majority of sexual assault cases are dismissed, and victims have been historically mistreated. Republicans could use these affidavits to launch invasive and traumatizing investigations into survivors of sexual assault and pursue perjury charges against them.
Even if the affidavit doesn’t result in criminal charges, the whole process would likely re-traumatize the survivor. In the comments on Parnas’ video, user BK commented, “Blame and re-traumatize the victim. Welcome to America.” It’s difficult to imagine a woman surviving a sexual assault and dealing with the trauma of pregnancy just to be told by their physician that they have to swear under threat of legal action that they are the survivor of an assault before they can access abortion care. These patients will be hit with the insinuation that they’re lying and the possibility that they will be investigated, not the person who attacked them.
The entire purpose of rape/incest exceptions in abortion law is to avoid further traumatizing a victim and to prevent perpetrators of sexual assault from believing they can choose the mothers of their children. However, because he couldn’t successfully do away with these exceptions, Young has found a new way to punish survivors of sexual assault. Sadly, this attitude is becoming common in Republican states, where politicians want steeper charges for victims of sexual assault than for those who commit sexual assault. Multiple states have pushed for legislation that would make abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, punishable by the death penalty. There are Republicans who genuinely want to punish survivors of sexual assault with traumatizing affidavits, investigations, and even death while making no mention of the penalties for the man who actually commits the sexual assault.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 11:49 am