Aprile Rickert

Abortion access has fluctuated dramatically in Indiana and Kentucky over the past few months. New laws restricting services have gone into effect and faced legal challenges in both states. Access could keep shifting.

Several states’ abortion bans are caught up in the courts due to legal challenges. The ever-changing abortion landscape is a source of confusion while demand for services remains high.

According to the study, 1 in 5 people in Indiana experiences mental illness, with around 20% going untreated. That’s led to an annual estimated cost of $4.2 billion in untreated mental illness.

An Indiana judge is expected to hear arguments next week in the first of two challenges to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Special Judge Kelsey Hanlon has scheduled a Sept. 19 hearing on a preliminary injunction to block the law. That’s four days after the law is set to go into effect.

Millions of people are poised to lose access to abortion across Kentucky and parts of the Midwest pending court battles and elections. More pregnancies mean more need for prenatal care in a region already lacking.

Thousands of protestors on both sides of the abortion debate demonstrated at the Indiana Statehouse on Monday.

The panel, hosted by the grassroots group “No Laws in Our Bodies,” spoke of consequences stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which set in motion the state’s trigger ban.

Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said the cases are among the more than 270 reported nationwide with no yet known cause.

It’s one of 11 states recently approved to extend coverage, and comes after the Biden administration notified Medicaid agencies in December of a change under the American Rescue Plan Act that would allow states to amend their Medicaid plans.

The number of people traveling to Illinois from other states has steadily risen over the past five years to about 10,000 a year, according to data from Illinois’ public health department. “People are coming into Illinois from as far as Texas, from as far as Kentucky, just all across the nation right now,” said Megan Jeyifo, director of the Chicago Abortion Fund.