IU Health setting up team to evaluate abortion protocols

INDIANAPOLIS — With Indiana’s legislation banning most abortions set to take impact Sept. 15, Indiana University Health, the state’s largest hospital system, has set up a “rapid-response team” to assist its medical doctors searching for steering on whether or not they can legally carry out an abortion to shield the well being of the mom and different conditions.

“We know this is new territory for many of our providers,” Dr. David Ingram, IU Health’s chief medical government, mentioned. “And that has increased, certainly, the anxiety around whether they are making the right decisions.”

He mentioned the rapid-response team can be obtainable across the clock and encompass three individuals: a health care provider or different medical specialist, a lawyer and a member of an ethics team.

Last 12 months, IU Health carried out 53 abortions, or lower than 1% of the 8,414 complete abortions carried out in Indiana, in accordance to figures from the Indiana Department of Health.

The overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana have been carried out in seven freestanding clinics owned by Planned Parenthood and three unbiased operators. Under the brand new legislation, abortions may be carried out solely in hospitals or outpatient facilities owned by hospitals, which means all abortion clinics will lose their licenses.

“We are going to continue to provide abortion care, legal abortion care, in our state, through our system for our patients who need it,” mentioned Dr. Caroline Rouse, an obstetrician-gynecologist and medical director of maternity providers at IU Health. “We know that abortion is safe. It is evidence-based. We will continue to provide that care within the parameters of the new law.”

Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature permitted the tighter abortion restrictions on Aug. 5, making it the primary state to accomplish that for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court eradicated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

The Indiana legislation consists of some slim exceptions: permitting abortions in circumstances of rape and incest earlier than 10 weeks post-fertilization; to shield the life and bodily well being of the mom; and if a fetus is recognized with a deadly anomaly.

Any medical doctors discovered to have carried out an unlawful abortion can be stripped of their state medical licenses and will face felony legal costs punishable by up to six years in jail.

IU Health officers mentioned they set up an “incident command structure” to contemplate dozens of potential points arising from the brand new legislation, by which 60 of its senior leaders took half.

Ingram and Rouse mentioned that in circumstances the place medical doctors can’t legally present an abortion, they will refer sufferers to states the place an abortion is authorized.

Last 12 months, IU Health medical doctors carried out 39 abortions at Methodist Hospital, 19 at Riley Hospital for Children (which incorporates maternity care), three at University Hospital and one at West Hospital in Avon.