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 Republican Governor Mike Pence has until the end of the day to sign
or veto the bill, which was ushered through the Republican-led
legislature over the last three months. The bill still becomes law
on Friday if the governor does not sign it but fails to veto it.
The legislature would need a two-thirds vote to override a veto, a
threshold both chambers reached when passing the measure.
The bill would ban abortion if the expecting mother is seeking the
procedure because the fetus has been diagnosed with certain
disabilities. It also bans abortions based on race, gender or
national origin.
In a story published by Indiana Public Media on March 14, Pence said
he would give "very careful and thoughtful consideration" to the
measure.
"But I do bring my belief in the sanctity of life to that, and that
will inform the way that I evaluate that, ultimately," he told
Indiana Public Media.
By law, Pence has seven days to sign a bill that was sent to him on
March 17 by the state Senate.
North Dakota is the only U.S. state that prohibits abortions based
on fetal anomalies. Seven states ban those based on gender, and
Arizona prohibits those based on race, according to the Guttmacher
Institute, an organization that tracks abortion laws.
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A petition circulating on Moveon.org hoping to persuade the governor
to veto the bill had more than 5,600 signatures as of Thursday
morning.
The measure would add "shame, stigma and barriers at a time when the
most critical need is medically accurate information and
compassionate care," it said.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Editing by Ben Klayman
and Lisa Von Ahn)
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