[Mike D]

Indiana made the national news today for a decision by a striking down a law that was signed by Gov. Pence in March with support from the Republican controlled legislative bodies, prosecutors and anti-abortionist interest groups like Right to Life (RTL).

Here is a brief summary of the law by the NYT

Indiana Governor signs new restrictive abortion laws

And a comparison here:

State-by-state review of restrictive abortion laws

I received my monthly flyer from Lake County RTL quite awhile ago and it’s been sitting on my desk bc of an item that caught my eye - that the organization took credit for closing out an OBGYN doctor named Klopler operating in Gary. The method for getting information to purge the doctor jolted me – RTL was able to obtain information gathered by the state from doctors (records known as Termination of Pregnancy Reports (TPRs).

See the form here:
Indiana's TPR

RTL groups began assessing the doctor's adherence to state regulations and then presented their findings to reviewing committees (EROC) - politically appointed individuals who can decide the fate of a clinic, doctor or any medical treatment facility - in this case, the Indiana Licensing Board. I found it remarkable that an outside group was doing the heavy lifting with state forms to get rid of a doctor based on medical records. I wanted to learn more without getting into political entanglements on this issue. The recent news from the U.S, Supreme Court and then the U.S. District Court was the primary motivation for this piece - not any deep seeded conviction about the legality or morality of abortion. Nobody likes abortion, especially the unfortunate women who have to make that very, very tough decision. It never ceases to amaze me that men of my age and others continue to thrust themselves into the issue for purely political reasons. I read the RTL flyers to be balanced and to support their right to free speech. Pregnancy termination, for whatever reason, and like may social issues, is a private matter and should definitely not be in the hands of the state.

Public policing of pregnancy termination in Indiana

Indiana has a whole infrastructure dedicated to policing pregnancy termination with a pretty nice budget and staff. Briefly, Indiana spends about $40 Billion in health care, but only 30% ($12 Billion) is state money. The average outlay per person is about $6700, which is in the middle of the pack compared to our neighboring states and country wide, given our average state age of 36.5 years old. The loss of federal dollars for abortions during the Daniels years was about $3 million (about half of the total expenditure by all persons in Indiana in 2014) - more than made up by donations and local collection by patients - basically peanuts compared to the total.

The state's expenditure on its regulation of pregnancy terminations can only be estimated bc the state does not break out unit cost, but lumps its individual accounts into General and Dedicated Funds. Sources break it out based on its costs (staff, overhead, consultants, reporting, et al.) to $5.5 million to $6 million. So, the state spends about the same on policing abortion as individuals spend on abortions themselves. Of course when you add in RTL and other anti-abortion groups’ activities, expenditures essentially quintuple. Get your head around that one!

This great cost is even more intriguing when you look at the procedure’s history over the past 20 years (which is actually 20 years after Roe v Wade). The number of pregnancy terminations in the state is in rapid decline - something you never read about in the RTL briefs (oddly) or the press and only a little in state data (which is only good for 3 years and lags by about 18 months in reporting). The number of procedures performed in Indiana has been cut half since 1991, or 8,118 counted by the state. There was almost a 10% drop last year and has not been in increase in a decade. The state can’t really break out much on the “whys” but take a look:

There are 1.3 million women in Indiana of child bearing age. 5.9 in 1000 women have the procedure - slightly under the national average. 80% of these are in the first 8 weeks and the rate of medical procedures (taking pills) is skyrocketing (due to increased access, thankfully) but only a quarter of the total today (an aberration compared to the rest of USA, but undetermined bc you can’t really know why this election was made – no pills, bleeding, pain, et al .) About half are women of color; over half of women in their early 20s; 85% are unmarried; and near 70% with no post secondary degree. This paints a pretty clear picture to me.

here is the state data
ISDH data on abortions

So despite a strong decline in number of people (women) conflicted by a complex social problem (for whatever reason), and medical advances to lessen the procedure’s risks (pills), the state - in hopes of preserving itself – builds an infrastructure – that you pay for!

Like most government bureaucracies, the state installation of abortion policing has no way of being eliminated – ever. In fact it is going to grow, perhaps dramatically. The state will now have to defend its laws, perhaps federally (very expensive), review its laws, enact new laws and appeal to its interest groups – all chewing away at productivity of government and its resources. New ways of reporting will be devised and new ways to circumvent the federal law will be investigated, supported, countered, discussed and then...passed. And the cycle will start again.

Footnote:

People in Indiana adopted about 1200 kids annually, but do you know how many are waiting to be adopted? Well, it is about twice that amount. Most of the adopted kids travel around for 3 years before getting adopted and most of them are under age 7. More than half are white and 1 out of 5 age out in the system. Half return home - sort of. The state support of these children is $76 million.


Sources:

Klopfer v RTL

South Bend Tribune

RTL

Daily Beast

Rewire


Adoption
State by state review of foster care dollars
Indiana Adoption Facts

[Mike D]

Let the games begin...

Indiana goes for throat of Roe v Wade

Indiana made the national news today for a decision by a striking down a law that was signed by Gov. Pence in March with support from the Republican controlled legislative bodies, prosecutors and anti-abortionist interest groups like Right to Life (RTL).

Here is a brief summary of the law by the NYT

Indiana Governor signs new restrictive abortion laws

And a comparison here:

State-by-state review of restrictive abortion laws

I received my monthly flyer from Lake County RTL quite awhile ago and it’s been sitting on my desk bc of an item that caught my eye - that the organization took credit for closing out an OBGYN doctor named Klopler operating in Gary. The method for getting information to purge the doctor jolted me – RTL was able to obtain information gathered by the state from doctors (records known as Termination of Pregnancy Reports (TPRs).

See the form here:
Indiana's TPR

RTL groups began assessing the doctor's adherence to state regulations and then presented their findings to reviewing committees (EROC) - politically appointed individuals who can decide the fate of a clinic, doctor or any medical treatment facility - in this case, the Indiana Licensing Board. I found it remarkable that an outside group was doing the heavy lifting with state forms to get rid of a doctor based on medical records. I wanted to learn more without getting into political entanglements on this issue. The recent news from the U.S, Supreme Court and then the U.S. District Court was the primary motivation for this piece - not any deep seeded conviction about the legality or morality of abortion. Nobody likes abortion, especially the unfortunate women who have to make that very, very tough decision. It never ceases to amaze me that men of my age and others continue to thrust themselves into the issue for purely political reasons. I read the RTL flyers to be balanced and to support their right to free speech. Pregnancy termination, for whatever reason, and like may social issues, is a private matter and should definitely not be in the hands of the state.

Public policing of pregnancy termination in Indiana

Indiana has a whole infrastructure dedicated to policing pregnancy termination with a pretty nice budget and staff. Briefly, Indiana spends about $40 Billion in health care, but only 30% ($12 Billion) is state money. The average outlay per person is about $6700, which is in the middle of the pack compared to our neighboring states and country wide, given our average state age of 36.5 years old. The loss of federal dollars for abortions during the Daniels years was about $3 million (about half of the total expenditure by all persons in Indiana in 2014) - more than made up by donations and local collection by patients - basically peanuts compared to the total.

The state's expenditure on its regulation of pregnancy terminations can only be estimated bc the state does not break out unit cost, but lumps its individual accounts into General and Dedicated Funds. Sources break it out based on its costs (staff, overhead, consultants, reporting, et al.) to $5.5 million to $6 million. So, the state spends about the same on policing abortion as individuals spend on abortions themselves. Of course when you add in RTL and other anti-abortion groups’ activities, expenditures essentially quintuple. Get your head around that one!

This great cost is even more intriguing when you look at the procedure’s history over the past 20 years (which is actually 20 years after Roe v Wade). The number of pregnancy terminations in the state is in rapid decline - something you never read about in the RTL briefs (oddly) or the press and only a little in state data (which is only good for 3 years and lags by about 18 months in reporting). The number of procedures performed in Indiana has been cut half since 1991, or 8,118 counted by the state. There was almost a 10% drop last year and has not been in increase in a decade. The state can’t really break out much on the “whys” but take a look:

There are 1.3 million women in Indiana of child bearing age. 5.9 in 1000 women have the procedure - slightly under the national average. 80% of these are in the first 8 weeks and the rate of medical procedures (taking pills) is skyrocketing (due to increased access, thankfully) but only a quarter of the total today (an aberration compared to the rest of USA, but undetermined bc you can’t really know why this election was made – no pills, bleeding, pain, et al .) About half are women of color; over half of women in their early 20s; 85% are unmarried; and near 70% with no post secondary degree. This paints a pretty clear picture to me.

here is the state data
ISDH data on abortions

So despite a strong decline in number of people (women) conflicted by a complex social problem (for whatever reason), and medical advances to lessen the procedure’s risks (pills), the state - in hopes of preserving itself – builds an infrastructure – that you pay for!

Like most government bureaucracies, the state installation of abortion policing has no way of being eliminated – ever. In fact it is going to grow, perhaps dramatically. The state will now have to defend its laws, perhaps federally (very expensive), review its laws, enact new laws and appeal to its interest groups – all chewing away at productivity of government and its resources. New ways of reporting will be devised and new ways to circumvent the federal law will be investigated, supported, countered, discussed and then...passed. And the cycle will start again.

Footnote:

People in Indiana adopted about 1200 kids annually, but do you know how many are waiting to be adopted? Well, it is about twice that amount. Most of the adopted kids travel around for 3 years before getting adopted and most of them are under age 7. More than half are white and 1 out of 5 age out in the system. Half return home - sort of. The state support of these children is $76 million.
Sources:

Klopfer v RTL

South Bend Tribune

RTL

Daily Beast

Rewire
Adoption
State by state review of foster care dollars
Indiana Adoption Facts