By Jack Springgate
Published: Jun. 28, 2023 at 5:46 PM EDT
INDIANAPOLIS (WNDU) - July 1 marks the start of more than 250 new laws in the Hoosier State.
This includes part of the state’s ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors, which has been held up in the State Supreme Court after a federal judge blocked a large portion of this bill on June 16.
Had a judge not blocked some of the most controversial portions of this bill, transgender youth in the Hoosier State would be banned from not only receiving gender-affirming surgeries but also access to puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and consultations from doctors outside Indiana.
Even with the injunction, the portion of Senate Bill 480 prohibiting Indiana doctors from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors still goes into effect on July 1.
However, minors will still have access to other gender-affirming healthcare in the form of puberty blockers and hormone therapies. Without the injunction, transgender youth taking these medications would have had to stop by Dec. 31, 2023.
Doctors are also no longer barred from speaking with out-of-state physicians about this type of healthcare for minors.
“The risk of suicide among transgender youth is much higher than cis-gender youth, and this law has caused an enormous amount of distress among youth and their parents, and hopefully with the injunction, things will calm down a bit,” said ACLU-Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk.
On another healthcare note, House Bill 1568 will also go into law on July 1. That bill allows qualified pharmacists to continue prescribing birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives.
However, it bars them from prescribing any medication intended to cause an abortion. It also gives them room to deny writing any of these prescriptions if they object on moral, ethical, or religious lines grounds.
Indiana’s updated “Move Over” law gives drivers some extra protection on the roadways that used to only be reserved for emergency and utility vehicles.
Indiana was one of the first states to adopt a “Move Over” law that originally only protected emergency vehicles stopped on the side of the road. That was expanded to utility and service vehicles back in 2010, and starting July 1, the law will protect disabled vehicles that have their hazards on.
Drivers who fail to switch lanes when approaching a disabled vehicle on the side of the road that has its flashers on could receive a class B infraction.
This goes for drivers on all Indiana roads, including two-lane roads where moving over a lane might not be possible. In this case, or in the event you can’t safely switch lanes on a four-lane road, drivers can also slow down to 10 mph below the speed limit to avoid a violation.
Even though drivers will need to adjust their focus for a whole new class of vehicles, Indiana State Police Sgt. Ted Bohner says this addition will actually make our Move Over Laws easier to comply with.
“With this passing, it actually simplifies things for the public. Basically, a good rule of thumb is if you see a flashing light ahead of you, you need to move over and slow down,” Sgt. Bohner says.
And this law couldn’t come at a better time. Just this past weekend, three people were killed when they parked on the shoulder of I-94 in LaPorte County with their flashers on, after a distracted driver hit their disabled vehicle as they waited for help.
Bohner says he hopes this law will encourage people to pay better attention to what’s in front of them.
House Bill 1447 also goes into effect at the start of next month. We’ll really see how this plays out once the school year starts, but this bill will require school corporations to adopt policies and procedures that concern material that could be considered harmful or obscene to minors.
The bill requires school corporations to publish a list of all the titles in their library along with a process to field complaints from community members who object to any material deemed harmful to minors.
Indiana code specifies “harmful materials” as books containing things like nudity, encouragement of minors to have sex, and content that violates community standards that adults would deem inappropriate for minors, which seems to be the most controversial part of the code.
Opponents say that language can be construed to target literature describing the experience of people of color and those in the LGBTQ+ community.
The law also includes penalties for school librarians, who could face up to two and a half years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 if they violate it.
In contrast, House Bill 1177 providing state funds for firearm training for teachers will also go into effect on July 1.
Critics say that HB 1447 devalues the expertise of educators to determine what materials are truly harmful to students, while HB 1177 could lead to more harm and more guns in school settings.
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