(INDIANAPOLIS) – Governor Holcomb isn’t ruling out a special session to limit abortion in Indiana if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade.
100 of the 110 Republican legislators, including the House and Senate’s top leaders, called on Holcomb in March to call a special session “at the earliest date practicable” if Roe is scaled back. House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) repeated that call after the leak of a draft opinion doing just that. Holcomb says that option is “obviously on the table,” but says there are “a lot of ifs, ands and what-ifs.” He says he won’t make a decision until the Court rules and he’s had a chance to review what the opinion says.
Holcomb says one of those complicating factors is the nearly unprecedented leak in a case involving Mississippi’s proposed 15-week abortion limit. And he says “a lot could happen” between now and the decision, which is expected next month.
Holcomb and legislative leaders are awaiting an Indiana Supreme Court ruling on whether the General Assembly can call itself into special session, but the law being challenged in that case applies only to legislative review of an emergency declaration. Legislators return in January for a new session whether Holcomb summons them back early or not.
13 states have “trigger laws” which would automatically ban abortion if the Supreme Court rules they can, while nine more have abortion bans still on the books but rendered unenforceable by Roe. The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute counts 55 abortion restrictions passed in Indiana over the last decade, though courts have blocked several of those from taking effect, ruling they run afoul of Roe.
Holcomb won’t speculate on the potential political impact of the looming court decision, saying he’ll “leave that to the pundits.”
