Kevin Rader/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - Two polarizing issues were debated both inside and outside the Indiana Statehouse Wednesday. Planned Parenthood supporters - and opponents rallied outside and right to work advocates met inside. One of the groups brought in a casket.
Planned Parenthood staged a demonstration on the Capital's south steps Tuesday to send a message.
"Rather than cutting health care and telling us what to do with our bodies, maybe lawmakers can focus on things that will make Indiana better. My message to legislators is get out of the doctor's office, fix the economy, find jobs!" said Deb Simon, speaking to the crowd.
Opponents organized as well, spacing out in the crowd and taunting the speakers.
"Kill that baby! You need to repent! You need to repent for child killing!" one person cried.
Kristina Frey, who brought her three-year-old daughter Mary, says Planned Parenthood is more than abortions.
"This is about pap smears, about preventing cervical cancer. This is about providing access to birth control so that people won't have unplanned pregnancies and end up needing abortions," said Frey.
"I stand here today against the war on women being waged in Washington, DC and right here," said Sen. Vi Simpson (D-Ellettsville).
Indiana Right to Life frames the debate differently.
"Are we gonna continue to fund the state's largest abortion provider or is the taxpayer money going to be protected from being used for immoral purposes?" said Mark Tuttle, Indiana Right to Life.
An Indiana House bill would end funding to Planned Parenthood because it provides abortions.
None of the government money that Planned Parenthood now gets goes to abortions. But sponsoring Republican state Rep. Matt Ubelhor of Bloomfield says support for an abortion provider amounts to indirect funding of abortions.
Republican Rep. Sean Eberhart of Shelbyville says he's against abortion but opposes the bill because he doesn't want to cut health care to low-income people.
Planned Parenthood provides birth control, cancer screenings and other reproductive health services to about 12,500 people in low-income parts of Indiana.
Inside, unions and Planned Parenthood supporters marched around the third floor in Fat Tuesday fashion following a casket that bore the inscription, "Here lies the middle class. No justice. No peace." One man carried a voodoo doll of the Speaker of the House.
"Straight from New Orleans," someone commented.
But there were no House members around to see or hear it. The Democrats are still in Illinois and the Republicans had already adjourned for the day.
The symbolic gesture in the chamber hallway proved all for naught, but the music fit right in.
House Democrats remain in Urbana, Illinois, where they've been staying at a hotel for the past two weeks. Talks between minority leader Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) and House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) appeared to signal a thaw last week, but the boycott continues.
The Democrats are now facing $250-a-day fines, and Bosma has said he will look into extending the legislative session in order to get business done.
