INDIANAPOLIS–26 people were arrested outside the home of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in Indianapolis Sunday morning.
Approximately 60 protesters showed up, many of them in wheelchairs, to demand he sign off on new rules banning shock therapy for patients in a Massachusetts rehabilitation facility.
An advocacy group for disabled people called ADAPT issued a news release saying it organized the demonstration to protest rules that have awaited HHS approval for more than two years that would ban shock therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts.
The FDA has proposed regulations that would ban this practice, but has yet to implement them.
Azar was the President of Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis from 2012-2017.
IMPD told the protesters that they were trespassing and that if they didn’t leave, they would be arrested. They say when they didn’t listen, they arrested those 26 and took them to the Marion County Jail.
Neither Azar nor the FDA have responded to Sunday’s events.
(PHOTO: RTV6)
