I understand the impulse and desire to protect the unborn. The birth of my daughter Annetta was the greatest blessing of my life. I cannot imagine this world without her, but I can imagine a world that is better for her. I will always support a women’s right to access health care, including the right to access a safe and legal abortion, because access to health care and bodily autonomy are issues that affect the real lives of real women in our state. SB1 will make it more difficult for women to obtain the health care they need and for medical professionals to deliver treatment they think is best. I hope I have your support this fall in standing up to overreach and extremism within our state legislature. Together, we can create an Indiana that we’re proud to pass on to our children.
Hoosiers Support Choice
I will always support a women’s right to access health care, including the right to access a safe and legal abortion, because access to health care and bodily autonomy are issues that affect the real lives of real women in our state. This includes medication for safe miscarriages for those mothers who may dearly have wanted the child but cannot safely carry it. SB1 will make it more difficult for all women of reproductive age to obtain the health care they need and for medical professionals to deliver treatment they think is best. We may lose such medical professionals from our state who do not want legal challenges every time they attempt to make a ethical and medical situations.
Only 17 percent of Hoosiers support a blanket ban on access to abortion. Our politicians are meant to represent the people who elected them, but sadly they have chosen to impose their own views over so many others. Navigating what happens after the passing of SB1 with the very real possibility of another Republican-controlled legislature in the fall requires deliberation and consideration.
Choosing Life Means More than Birth
If Indiana legislators truly want to call themselves pro-life, they have to work towards legislation that supports life. We need to be prepared and willing to support new parents. Our current legislators are too focused on passing unpopular laws and not focused enough on creating actual, pro-child policies. Not only do I support the right to choose, but I also support access to quality and low-cost maternal, prenatal, and infant healthcare, safe and affordable daycare, the expansion of free pre-K opportunities, excellent public K-12 education, and an environment and world that will be livable as they grow up.
With the passing of SB1 we can expect a baby boom in Indiana, and we cannot send our children into schools that are woefully underprepared for them. Ninety percent of school children in Indiana attend public schools. The future of Indiana is literally in the hands of public educators. We need to support our educators, not make it harder for them to do their jobs or discourage them so much they would seek to work elsewhere. Indiana is 41st out of 50 states for teacher pay. For too long, the Indiana legislature has balanced the budget on the backs of state employees including teachers. I will support bills to increase funding of public schools, because public education is an investment in our kid’s futures.
We also cannot send our children into a world that cannot support them. Indiana ranks 45th out of 50 states for air pollution and leads the nation in having the most miles of rivers and streams too polluted for recreation and swimming. The air we breathe and water we drink are crucial to life. As the current stewards of this world, it is our responsibility to take these detrimental changes seriously. We need to curb CO2 and build a resiliency to the changes that are coming so that our children can live healthy, long lives.
Finally, we cannot expect the children born as a result of SB1 to thrive in our state if we continue to reinforce barriers to economic growth. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, there are 2 million fewer women in the workforce than there were two years ago, as the on-going pandemic forced many women to make tough choices between career and childcare. If women in Indiana cannot choose when they feel they are most prepared to become mothers, we are obligated to also enact policies that help them equally thrive in the home and the workplace.
I’m running for the KIDS and their future. I am also running for women, for men, and for life in all its forms within the great State of Indiana. I hope I have your support this fall in rooting out hypocrisy and overreach within our state legislature. Together, we can create an Indiana that we’re proud to pass on to our children.