Indiana’s Abortion Ban Shows Lives Are Being Saved in a Post-Roe America

In a post-Roe America, few states have demonstrated the life-saving impact of pro-life legislation as clearly as Indiana. With the release of the Indiana Department of Health’s latest Terminated Pregnancy Report, the data reveals that abortion bans, when paired with targeted support, can dramatically reduce the number of unborn lives lost.

In the first quarter of 2025, just 22 abortions were reported statewide in a state of nearly seven million people.

Just three years ago, in 2022, Indiana reported 9,529 abortions for the full year. By 2023, the number dropped to 2,613 following partial restrictions. By 2024, the first full year under the state’s near-total abortion ban, just 146 abortions occurred. That’s a staggering 98.5 percent drop in two years and a 99.8 percent decrease since 2022.

These aren’t just statistics. These numbers represent thousands of children who might not be here today without a bold law that prioritized their right to live.

Indiana’s law, passed in August 2022 and fully enacted in August 2023 after court challenges, allows exceptions only in cases of rape or incest (within 10 weeks of fertilization), fatal fetal anomalies, or serious risks to the mother’s health.

Even with these exceptions, the numbers remain incredibly low. In 2024, for example, only nine abortions were performed under the rape or incest exception, while the vast majority were due to terminal fetal diagnoses.

Critics of the law warned that banning most abortions would lead to a public health crisis, force women into dangerous “back-alley” abortions, or overwhelm neighboring states with abortion-seekers. None of those doomsday predictions have happened in Indiana. Instead, the state has seen an unprecedented reduction in abortions without a corresponding spike in maternal deaths or illegal activity.

This shift is a win for children and a moral victory that reaffirms the value of life in law and policy. It proves what pro-life advocates have claimed for decades: When the law reflects the truth that life begins at conception, society begins to change. Women are making different choices, families are seeking alternatives, and churches and ministries are stepping up to help.

To be clear, this success didn’t happen in a vacuum. Indiana lawmakers combined their abortion ban with increased investment in maternal care, foster and adoption services, and support for low-income families. The state expanded Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers, promoted safe haven laws, and increased funding for non-abortion pregnancy resource centers.

Still, the media rarely highlights this side of the story, and abortion advocates often amplify rare exceptions as if they define the rule. But the statistics tell a different story, one that includes thousands of children alive today thanks to lawmakers and citizens who stood firm in support of life.

Some will say the state should have no role in such deeply personal decisions. But that argument falls flat when applied to other areas of human life. The state rightly intervenes to protect children from abuse, elderly citizens from neglect, and people with disabilities from exploitation. Why should children in the womb be an exception?

Others argue that abortion bans disproportionately impact low-income women. But the solution isn’t to offer abortion as the only way out of hardship. Instead, Indiana is proving that states can invest in life-saving alternatives that uplift women and preserve the dignity of all human beings, born and unborn.

There is still work to be done, though, especially in laws related to abortion pills. The Terminal Pregnancy Complications Report showed that 13 of the 22 abortions performed in Indiana in the first quarter of 2025 were non-surgical or chemical abortions, and of these, 9 reported complications.

There is also a need for more complete sharing of data from abortion providers, noting that deep concern remains “over incomplete data reported by hospitals and the continued lack of access for public review of properly redacted abortion report forms, a matter over which Voices for Life has brought suit,” as Indiana Right to Life shared with LifeNews.

Two physicians with IU Health testified in March that they had not submitted terminated pregnancy reports since December 23, 2024, following the implementation of a new federal rule aimed at protecting reproductive healthcare privacy. In January, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, R, issued executive orders to strengthen compliance with state abortion reporting laws, including requirements for submitting terminated pregnancy reports.

In February, the Indiana Department of Health reached an agreement with a pro-life organization to resume releasing individual abortion reports. The agency had previously halted the release in December 2023 over patient privacy concerns. A judge later issued a ruling blocking the release of those reports.

Despite these concerns, Indiana’s efforts to reduce most abortions are admirable — and the state is not alone. According to the Guttmacher Institute, Florida saw a significant drop in abortions following the implementation of its six-week abortion ban in May 2024. For the year, the state recorded 12,100 fewer abortions compared to 2023.

South Carolina, which enacted a similar six-week restriction in September 2023, reported the second-largest decrease nationwide. The state had 3,500 fewer abortions in 2024 than the previous year.

Despite the significant improvements in states with new abortion restrictions, America’s pro-life battle is far from over. Clinicians in states provided an estimated 1,038,000 abortions without total bans in 2024, a less than 1 percent increase from 2023. Medication abortion also continues to grow, accounting for two-thirds of America’s abortions in 2023.

What Indiana has done is nothing short of transformative. In the space of just two years, the state has moved from nearly 10,000 abortions annually to fewer than two dozen per quarter. As other states consider their path forward in the nation’s post-Roe era, Indiana’s example offers a powerful example of how abortion bans save lives.

Indiana has proven that strong pro-life laws can dramatically reduce abortions and uphold the dignity of life. As the nation charts its course in a post-Roe era, Indiana stands as a bold model for saving lives and building a culture that values every human being.

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