When Does Life Start? Abortion Should Be Illegal After Egg Fertilization, Indiana Lawmaker Says

A reproductive rights group in Indiana delivered a petition with thousands of signatures to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office Wednesday asking the governor to block a new bill that would ban abortion, according to reports. Republican Rep. Curt Nisly introduced House Bill 1134, at the start of the 2017 session, and pro-life groups are doing all that they can to prevent the bill from being signed into legislation.

The bill, which Nisly proposed Monday, defines human life as beginning the moment a human egg is fertilized and would consider abortion a crime any time after. Under Roe v. Wade, abortion is completely legal up until the point in pregnancy when a fetus could potentially survive outside of the womb.

Indiana’s House committee has yet to consider the bill. However, that hasn’t stopped the Indiana Reproductive Justice Coalition from launching a crusade against the bill, which they consider unconstitutional. In less than a week, the group garnered 3,000 signatures disapproving of House Bill 1134.

“We hoped to move beyond bills trying to strip Hoosiers of their constitutional rights,” Harmony Glenn of Indy Feminists, who also opposed the new bill, said to Journal Gazette. “We find this unacceptable.”

Nisly’s bill is just the latest attempt to restrict abortions in Indiana. Back in June, a federal judge shot down proposals that would have prohibited women from seeking abortions because of a fetus’ disability or genetic anomaly. Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of Federal District Court for Southern Indiana said at the time that she ruled against the restrictions because the legislation was “inconsistent with the notion of a right rooted in privacy concerns and liberty right to make independent decisions.”

Although Holcomb opposes abortion, the governor has yet to state whether he’ll consider the bill yet. Stephanie Wilson, a spokeswoman for the governor, told local media that Holcomb is mostly focused on bills that will survive the legislation season as opposed to laws that could be blocked by a Supreme Court.

Along with Nisly’s bill, Indiana's legislature will also have to consider another abortion restriction proposed by Republican state Sen. Dennis Kruse that would force patients to wait 48 hours between their initial visit and procedure. Senate Bill 118 also would require women to view an ultrasound of the fetus and listen to the fetal heartbeat before getting an abortion. Currently, patients are able to opt out of the waiting period, which is only 18 hours after an initial visit.