Democrat Jennifer McCormick is looking to use appointments to state boards and agencies — and even state Supreme Court justices — to help protect abortion rights if she is elected governor.

McCormick renewed her emphasis on the issue Thursday with the release of a policy platform on steps she would take to protect abortion access while acknowledging the unlikelihood of changes to the state’s abortion ban by the Republican-dominated Legislature.

McCormick calls this fall’s election a “referendum” on abortion rights, and her campaign has run television ads in which she says she aimed to repeal the abortion ban and highlighted comments from Republican candidate Mike Braun supporting the ban.

Use of governor’s board appointments

McCormick said Thursday that as governor she would direct the Indiana Department of Health to interpret state laws in ways that maximize legal access to abortion services. She also would have state agencies shift from enforcement efforts toward helping medical professionals to comply with the law because of what she called “confusion” surrounding the ban’s exceptions.

McCormick referenced Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita’s pursuit of sanctions from the state Medical Licensing Board against Dr. Caitlin Bernard for speaking publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old Ohio girl. The board voted 5-1 to reprimand Bernard but rejected more serious penalties sought by Rokita.

McCormick told reporters a priority would be appointing members to those “boards that look at those licensing issues that are more supportive of women and those health care providers.”

“Not following a law is not an option, but there is a lot of space on educating people, making sure that they have resources where they need to go, making sure we’re having a targeted effort to keep clinics open so that when women are in trouble, they have somewhere to go,” McCormick said. “That’s where the boards and the commissions and the agency head appointments are going to be incredibly important.”

Braun’s campaign didn’t immediately reply Thursday to State Affairs’ request for a response to McCormick’s comments.

Braun said during a debate with McCormick on Oct. 2 that he supported the abortion ban.

“It is a bill that sanctifies life — we’re a state that does that, with reasonable exceptions,” Braun said. “I think the people have spoken. The legislators listened, and we got a bill that seems to be working for Hoosiers.”

Weighing abortion rights in judicial appointments

Some activists are pushing for voters to reject three Indiana Supreme Court justices who face 10-year retention votes on this fall’s ballot. The three — Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justices Mark Massa and Derek Molter — voted to uphold the abortion ban as constitutional.

Asked about that campaign against the justices, McCormick replied that all five state Supreme Court justices had been appointed by “super-conservative governors” and that she would “welcome” new judges.

“I certainly would appoint those who, obviously, that trust women and trust health care providers, that trust our public schools, that trust the immigrants who are here legally,” McCormick said. “I would certainly appoint people that celebrate LGBTQ and ‘all means all,’ and so there’s a lot of factors in this.”

Pushing for Indiana ballot referendums

McCormick also said she would use the governor’s office to advocate for Indiana to join 23 other states in allowing citizen-led ballot referendums, such as Ohio, where voters last year approved a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access.

Republicans have blocked attempts by Democratic legislators in recent years to allow such ballot referendums in Indiana.

McCormick argued that Republicans have done so because voters even in conservative states such as Kansas and Kentucky have supported abortion rights referendums.

“It’s time as governor that we use that platform in order to inform and in order to champion for such initiatives,” she said.

Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at [email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.

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