Indiana has a problem with women.
Namely, there aren’t enough of them. At least, not when it comes to the ranks of decision makers in our state government.
This issue was on full display two weeks ago as the state’s legislature rammed through an 11th hour anti-abortion bill. The new law would force doctors to determine a woman’s reasoning for seeking an abortion, and criminalizing the procedure if the woman’s thought process includes consideration of a disability. The sure-to-be-controversial bill wasn’t given over to the usual committee process, denying the opportunity for House members to offer amendments or for the public to weigh in.
Even lawmakers who have authored anti-abortion legislation in the past stood against this particularly nasty piece of work. “The bill does nothing to save innocent lives. There’s no education, there’s no funding. It’s just penalties,” Rep. Sharon Negele, a Republican who has had no problem sponsoring previous anti-abortion bills.
Women make up just over half of Indiana’s population (50.7% according to the US Census Bureau). In spite of this, only 18% of the seats in the Indiana House of Representatives are occupied by women, and only 16% of the seats in the Indiana Senate. No woman has ever held the Governor's office in the Hoosier state.
But never mind the complete lack of transparency, the utter disdain for process, public opinion or good policy. Forget the fact that this bill is blatantly unconstitutional, practically guaranteeing that the state will have to sink yet more money into defending another law with almost zero chance of surviving a review by the courts. The real issue highlighted by this awful piece of legislation is the impact of the deficit of women in public office.
Republican lawmaker Sean Eberhart acknowledged the problem. After what, by his account, was apparently an enlightening and persuasive conversation with his wife, Eberhart took to the statehouse floor to drive the point home.
“Today is a perfect example a bunch of middle-aged guys sitting in this room making decisions about what we think is best for women,” Eberhart said. “We need to quit pretending we know what’s best for women and their health care needs.”
Eberhart isn’t wrong.
Women make up just over half of Indiana’s population (50.7% according to the US Census Bureau). In spite of this, only 18% of the seats in the Indiana House of Representatives are occupied by women, and only 16% of the seats in the Indiana Senate. No woman has ever held the Governor's office in the Hoosier state.
In a state in which more than 20% of the children live in poverty, which suffers from the nation's 7th highest rate of uninsured residents, and where nearly 1 in 5 high school girls report having been forced to have sexual intercourse, you would think these sort of issues would top the agendas of our elected officials. But they don’t. And they probably won’t until the number of women sitting in those chairs starts ticking upwards.
The impact of this deficit of female decision makers reaches far beyond the perennial fight over a woman’s ability to make her own health decisions.
“There is a difference in how women approach issues and how men approach issues,” said Indiana State Auditor Suzanne Crouch at an event for the Girl Scouts of America last year. “There [have] been studies that have indicated that the outcome is more beneficial and more representative of our government and society at large when you have better representation of women to men. Women take up issues that men don’t take up, such as sexual assault, health care, children.”
In a state in which more than 20% of the children live in poverty, which suffers from the nation's 7th highest rate of uninsured residents, and where nearly 1 in 5 high school girls report having been forced to have sexual intercourse, you would think these sort of issues would top the agendas of our elected officials. But they don’t. And they probably won’t until the number of women sitting in those chairs starts ticking upwards.
That’s a good reason for progressives to start getting more intentional about recruiting women to serve as candidates, and supporting the candidacies of qualified women who are seeking elected office.
So how did things play out for that anti-abortion bill? Despite the opposition of most of the women in the chamber, it sailed through. It now sits on the desk of Governor Mike Pence, who is expected to sign it into law without pause.
Like I said at the beginning – Indiana’s got a problem.
Update, 03/25/16: As expected, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the above mentioned legislation yesterday, privately and behind closed doors. It took less than 24 hours for the first legal actions to be filed challenging the bill.