Indiana is now the first state to pass a near-total abortion following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill Friday evening after the state’s House and Senate pushed it through earlier that day. The House then advanced the bill 62-38 before the Republican-led state Senate approved it 28-19, the Associated Press reported.
The new legislation—which will go into effect September 15– does provide some exceptions; in some cases of rape or incest, when there is a fatal fetal abnormality, or when the pregnant individual faces certain health risks.
However, under the new law, those abortions are to be performed only in hospitals or outpatient centers owned by hospitals, PEOPLE reported.
“These actions followed long days of hearings filled with sobering and personal testimony from citizens and elected representatives on this emotional and complex topic,” Holcomb, 54, said in a released statement. “Ultimately, those voices shaped and informed the final contents of the legislation and its carefully negotiated exceptions to address some of the unthinkable circumstances a woman or unborn child might face.”
Indiana was one of the first Republican-led state legislatures to fight for tighter abortion rulings following the U.S. Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision of 1973 that granted people the right to abortion across the country.
West Virginia lawmakers came close to becoming the first to pass an abortion ban late last month, but the state currently remains in limbo, with the two chambers of the legislature failing to agree on how the bill should move forward.
The 6-to-3 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade changed the nearly 50 years of precedence that protected reproductive rights by giving individual states the power to decide whether to allow the procedure or ban it.
