This truly is straight out of the Handmaid's Tale. Indiana has a new law which requires doctors and hospitals to interrogate women about whether they've had an abortion when they are seeking "treatment for a physical or psychological condition that is in any way connected to a past abortion." Any provider who fails to submit an "abortion complications" report to the State Department of Health "risks being charged with a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, for each instance of noncompliance."

Indiana's new law, however, employs a broad definition of abortion complication that ranges from an immediate physical injury due to a surgical abortion to psychological or emotional pain, including anxiety and sleeplessness, that arises possibly years or decades after having an abortion. Under the statute, doctors who identify an abortion complication must then report to the state: the patient's age, race and county of residence; the type, date and location of the abortion; a list of each complication and treatment; the date of every visit to every doctor relating to the complication; and any abortion drugs used by the patient and how they were procured. The state health department is required to compile and publish an anonymous tally of Indiana abortion complications that will be submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for inclusion in the Vital Statistics Report.

The new law also "adds 17 items to the Indiana pregnancy termination report and mandates annual state inspection of abortion clinics—a requirement that doesn't apply to hospitals." It's all about "Hoosier women" says Mike Fichter, president of Indiana Right to Life, and making sure "abortion complications don’t get swept under the rug." Since abortion complications basically are not a real, medical thing, that's not a reason for this law. Getting your wisdom teeth out is more likely to result in post-procedure complications. Likewise, women's mental health isn't endangered by abortion, and in fact "psychological symptoms increased only in women who sought abortions but were not allowed to have the procedure because their pregnancies were further along than the cutoff time at the clinic they visited."

That does, possibly, give providers perfectly valid reasons not to interrogate women about their abortion history in the first place. Since most physical or psychological ailments women would be seeking care for wouldn't have anything to do with abortion according to best medical practice and knowledge, providers shouldn't even have to bring it up.