Indiana dems slam republicans over Roe v. Wade decision

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - The challenger for US Senator Todd Young, R-Indiana, Democrat Tom McDermott was in Fort Wayne on Wednesday morning to discuss the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and he made his thoughts clear, giving states the rule over abortion decisions is wrong.

He explained, “One of the first things I learned at Notre Dame Law School, when I went to law school there, is that precedent should be respected and the supreme court knows it better than anybody, and in this case just because they have the votes, they got rid of fifty years of precedent, just like that.”

Joining McDermott this afternoon was Vice-chair of the Indiana Democratic Party Myla Eldridge.

She says Hoosier women should be upset and says the decision should be left up to the woman, not the policymakers.

“This is terrible legislation and women should have the right to choose to have an abortion within the state,” Eldridge said.

Eldridge says if Indiana legislatures go into the special session and make abortion illegal like her and McDermott believe they’ll do, it won’t do anything to stop abortions. It’ll cause more harm to women who will travel to have to procedure done.

“Some women will not have the transportation or maybe not even have the funds. So, there is not legal or safe procedure in a state that bans abortions,” Eldridge explained.

And McDermott blames the republican super majority for making women unsafe.

“The Supermajority in Indiana has already proven that they don’t listen Hoosiers. They don’t listen to experts. They’re going to ram this down our throats, they don’t care about the ramifications.”

For republicans, McDermott believes it’s a win they’ve been planning for a long time, but he says those who voted in the justices who decided to overturn Roe v. Wade aren’t considering the long-term consequences, with lack of healthcare and mental health workers.

McDermott said, “The system is no prepared for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and you only need to look at Indiana to figure that out. Right here in Indiana, we’re getting ready to go into special session on July 6th just to talk about overruling Roe v. Wade and what Indiana law is going to look like. There’s no talk about additional services offered to mothers, additional services offered to kids. They’re not talking about that. They’re talking about removing rights and we’ll deal with the consequences later, and there will be consequences.”

Between the time of the interviews and the filing of this story, the announcement was made to push the Indiana special session back to July 25th.