The Indiana Senate approved a pro-life bill Jan. 27 aimed at curbing chemical abortions by allowing private civil lawsuits against vendors who prescribe and ship mail-order abortion drugs into the state.
SB 236, titled the “Anti-Chemical Abortion Pill Trafficking Act,” passed by a 35-10 vote. It now heads to the Indiana House for further consideration. One Republican, Sen. Kyle Walker, joined all Democrats in opposing the bill.
Authored by Republican Sens. Tyler Johnson and Liz Brown, the bill would allow wrongful-death and whistleblower lawsuits against individuals or entities who prescribe, manufacture, or distribute abortion drugs in Indiana or supply them from outside the state. Women who take the pills would be shielded from liability, while violators could face civil penalties of up to $100,000 per offense and a 20-year statute of limitations.
The proposed law would also authorize the Indiana attorney general to bring civil actions on behalf of unborn children who are state residents against those alleged to have violated federal abortion drug mailing laws.
“In a post-Dobbs era, Indiana has chosen life,” Johnson said on the Senate floor, according to IndyStar. “This bill reinforces that choice by defining abortion clearly and providing civil tools to enforce our laws.”
Indiana already prohibits abortions, with few exceptions, including cases of rape, incest, and when a mother’s life is at risk, and state law requires that all medication abortions be conducted in person rather than via telehealth. However, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules rolled out under the Biden administration in 2023 loosened prior safeguards and allowed chemical abortion drugs to be prescribed via telehealth and mailed directly to patients.
Critics say the FDA policy undermines state law by fueling illegal mail-order distribution into pro-life states. Pro-life advocates have repeatedly urged the Trump administration’s FDA to reinstate safety standards in place before 2023.
The Indiana vote comes amid ongoing legal battles over abortion pill regulations nationwide. On Jan. 27, the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) sparked widespread backlash from pro-life leaders when it asked a federal judge to delay or dismiss a Louisiana lawsuit seeking to restore in-person dispensing requirements for abortion drugs. The DOJ argued that court intervention could disrupt the Trump administration’s FDA safety review of mifepristone, which the agency said could take a year or more to complete.
CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt condemned the DOJ’s move, calling it “a contradiction of the assurances” Vice President JD Vance made just days before at the annual March for Life, where he pledged stronger action to protect unborn children.
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Students for Life Action (SFLAction) hailed the Indiana Senate’s passage as a model for state-level enforcement that helps both women and children.
“This is exactly what GOP legislators should be doing — using their skills to quickly and decisively push pro-life legislation addressing a killer that moves through the mail — Chemical Abortion Pills,” SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins said in a press release. “These deadly drugs kill innocent babies; expose women [to] injury, infertility, and death; empower abusers; and create abortion water pollution by the tons.”
SFLAction cited a January 2026 SurveyUSA poll that it said found 9 in 10 voters in the “youth vote” — which the group said comprises nearly half of the electorate — supported a federal review of chemical abortion pill policy and the reinstatement of health and safety standards removed in recent years.
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