INDIANAPOLIS—On Tuesday, Senate Assistant Leader Shelli Yoder voted against House Bill 1426, legislation that was introduced to expand birth control access to Medicaid patients postpartum but was amended to remove IUDs from the bill. Sen. Yoder released the following statement: 

“I will not sit idly by and watch this body do the same thing to contraceptive options and access that they did with abortion access. We’ve seen this same writing on this wall before: small knicks out of the list of choices for women, with the argument always being that something is better than nothing. And then—there actually is nothing.   

“HB 1426 does not provide options. Instead, it creates a tiered system of birth control access in our statute. It is legislators saying one form of birth control will be preferred by the state based on ideology and not science. Can you imagine this body putting our religious ideology into statute regarding the best orthopedic treatments? The best ways to address blood pressure or how to treat prostate cancer? Absolutely not. We wouldn’t do that. But, apparently, it’s okay for politicians to weigh in, limit and decide the reproductive care available for women. It’s gross, and it’s unacceptable, and I won’t have any part of it.  

“When this Legislature moves to further erode birth control access, Hoosiers can look to this session and know this was the beginning of the claw back of Hoosiers’ remaining reproductive options.”