Robert King

robert.king@indystar.com

A handful of women showed up at the Statehouse early Tuesday to protest an abortion bill in the House. They carried posters referencing their menstrual cycles and their desire for health-care privacy, and they waved large spoons, which they said were similar in size to the wands used in ultrasounds.

Yet the women left disappointed when, for the second time in a week, the House Public Policy Committee approved House Bill 1128. The bill would require abortion providers to give women information about a scientifically unproven method to "reverse" abortions that are induced with medications.

The committee approved the bill last week and saw it boomerang back. Speaker Brian Bosma said concerns were raised in a closed door meeting of Republican House members. Chief among the concerns was a provision that specified abortion providers must use an ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the fetus. That provision was deleted from the bill Tuesday.

The 7-6 vote for approval Tuesday was the same as a week before. Again two Republicans — Reps. Sean Eberhart and Edward Clere — joined all four Democrats on the committee in opposing it.

The bill centers on a controversial treatment called "abortion pill reversal," which seeks to halt the process of abortions that are induced through medication. Unlike surgical abortions, a pair of medications are given to the woman over a span of two to three days. The first drug arrests fetal development; the second prompts the uterus to expel the tissues.

Abortion pill "reversal" purports to stop the process in its tracks by treating the woman with large doses of synthetic progesterone after the first pill is given. An organization called Abortion Pill Reversal promotes the treatment through a network of allied physicians. It claims to have helped several women avert abortions.

So far, proof of that appears to be only anecdotal. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional association of physicians in the field, says there's no research to prove any treatment reverses the effects of medical abortion. If anything, the organization says, what could be stopping the abortions is withholding the second abortion drug.

Still, the bill has drawn support from Indiana Right to Life and the Indiana Catholic Conference. It has drawn opposition from Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, which issued a statement Tuesday quoting Betty Cockrum, the organization's president and CEO, as saying: "This bill is an attempt by politicians to use junk science to erode trust in safe, legal non-surgical abortion practices."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Ronald Bacon, says the bill is needed to give women who have regrets about beginning the process of a medically induced abortion a chance to save their pregnancy.

Ultimately, though, the bill would give women some conflicting information — websites and phone numbers for groups with information about abortion reversal and a disclaimer that says there's no science that validates that abortion reversal is possible.

Call IndyStar reporter Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter: @RbtKing.

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