As the Indiana legislature finished the 2026 legislative session Friday, many bills didn’t advance, including a ban on abortion medication, defining gender and limiting passport and bathroom access for transgender people, and regulations for carbon storage operators.
Senate Bill 236, authored by State Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo, would have banned abortion medication. The bill stated a person who manufactures, distributes, mails, transports, delivers, prescribes or provides an abortion inducing drug is jointly and severally liable for the wrongful death of an unborn child.
Further, the bill would have allowed for qui tam actions, which means someone who suspects a woman received abortion pills could file a lawsuit on behalf of the state. The bill states the person who brings the case could receive at least $100,000 for bringing the case, and their legal fees would be covered by the defendant.
The bill passed out of the Senate in a 35-10 vote. It wasn’t heard in the House Public Health committee, which prevented it from being voted on by the House.
Johnson said in a statement Monday that he was disappointed the bill wasn’t heard in the House. Senate Bill 236 would have “closed a loophole that allows out-of-state bad actors” to break Indiana laws and send abortion medication to patients in the state.
“Indiana is one of the most pro-life states in the nation, which is why we must close this loophole to better protect women’s safety, enforce our pro-life laws and safeguard unborn lives,” Johnson said.
In the final days of the session, Haley Bougher, the director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Indiana, said in a statement that Senate Bill 236 would’ve resulted in: survivors navigating trauma while facing investigations, doctors second-guessing lifesaving care, and families afraid to get help for a loved one for fear of being sued.
“This isn’t what the people of Indiana want, and we will never stop fighting against these harmful policies and for a future where people can access the care they need without judgment, without fear, no matter where they live,” Bougher said.
Senate Bill 182, a gender definition bill, would have required the Department of Correction to assign an inmate to a facility or program based on the inmate’s biological sex at birth; required biological sex to be reflected on birth certificates; and required schools to have exclusively male and female bathrooms.
The bill passed the Senate in a 37-8 vote. It wasn’t heard in the House Public Health committee, which prevented it from being voted on by the House.
State Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, authored the gender bill and co-authored the abortion bill.
“These common-sense bills are backed by an overwhelming number of Hoosiers who believe in the dignity of human life and recognize there are only two sexes: male and female,” Brown said in the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “Now is not the time for House Leadership to abandon their principles and the social conservatives who elected them to office.”
When House Bill 1359, which addressed scanning early voting ballots, was heard in the Senate Elections committee, the bill was amended to decrease early voting from 28 days to 16 days.
Committee Chair State Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, offered the amendment because “a shorter time for early voting will save money and also make it easier to administer the election.”
House Bill 1359 passed out of the Senate Elections committee in a 7-2 vote, but was never called down to be discussed and voted on by the Senate.
Gaskill said Monday the bill wasn’t called because there weren’t enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill.
In the final hours of the session, House Bill 1065, which addressed gratuities for elected officials, failed to pass because legislators couldn’t resolve the Senate amendment to remove the gratuity language from the bill.
State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, said he authored the bill in response to the case against former Portage Mayor James Snyder.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond found Snyder not guilty on the charge involving a towing contract, and convicted him twice on a garbage truck charge, a case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which deemed in June 2024 that the $13,000 payment Snyder received over a garbage truck contract was a gratuity, not a bribe, because the payment came after the contract and not before. The case was remanded to the lower courts.
A jury convicted Snyder on the IRS charge, which involved his personal business and not his duties as mayor at the time, and that conviction had remained unchallenged.
As filed, House Bill 1065 would have made it a Class A misdemeanor for a person to offer a payment to a public servant as a reward for an official act taken by the public servant or a public servant to solicit or accept a payment as a reward for performing an official act. The bill also initially increased the penalty to a Level 6 felony if the fair market value of the reward is at least $750.
The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee amended the bill to include language from House Bill 1141, which would make commingling of a committee with personal funds up to $50,000 a Class A misdemeanor.
When the bill was heard on second reading in the Senate, State Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, proposed an amendment to remove all portions of the bill that pertain to gratuity, which meant the bill would have only pertained to the commingling of a committee with personal funds.
Slager filed a motion to dissent opposing the Senate amendment to the bill, which resulted in the bill being heard in conference committee so legislators could discuss how to possibly move the bill forward.
Ultimately, the bill wasn’t brought forward for final approval by the House.
Slager said Monday he spoke with Freeman, who said he amended the bill because the definition of gratuity “was too broad and that there was no time to fix it.” Slager said he doesn’t plan to reintroduce the bill next year because he would rather “work on issues that have a greater positive impact on our citizens.”
State Rep. Danny Lopez, R-Carmel, authored House Bill 1022 that didn’t make it past the House Elections and Apportionment Committee this session. The bill would’ve changed the process for lieutenant governor selection, which Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith shared his opposition to multiple times on social media.
The bill would have required a governor candidate to certify the name of who would be their lieutenant governor candidate and run jointly with them. Lieutenant governor candidates would have to file by noon on July 15.
Currently, lieutenant governor candidates are nominated at their annual political party convention and run with the governor candidate, according to the state of Indiana website. Governor candidates don’t select their lieutenant governor running mates.
Senate Bill 7 — authored by state Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell — passed the Senate on Jan. 29, but it failed to make it out of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee this session. The bill would have required a carbon storage operator to receive approval from a county legislative body or plan commission if the sequestration project would transport or store carbon dioxide outside the county where it’s generated.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, carbon sequestration captures and stores atmospheric carbon dioxide. The method is used to reduce the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide “with the goal of reducing global climate change.”
Various county commissioners supported the bill because it would create more local control, according to Post-Tribune archives. Oil and gas advocates previously said local governments don’t have the necessary expertise in carbon sequestration to make the necessary decisions.
Niemeyer was unable to immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
“This bill says that when you’re bringing a carbon sequestration project from outside your county, and you’re taking it to another county and bringing carbon outside the jurisdiction, it has to be noticed by a plan commission or county executive,” Niemeyer previously said. “It’s a property rights issue, it’s about zoning, and it’s about local control.”
Senate Bill 8 — authored by state Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrnesville — was another bill that did not make it past a House committee this session. The bill would shift the review and approval of a library’s proposed budget and tax levies to the city, town or county council if the budget has an increase that is equal to or more than 50% of the maximum growth quotient for the upcoming year.
The bill applied to libraries that don’t elect the majority of their board members, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Byrne was unable to immediately provide a comment Monday.
Julie Wendorf, director of the Crown Point Community Library and past president of the Indiana Library Foundation, previously said the changes are concerning and could lead to insufficient funding.
“Public libraries are not abstract budget lines,” Wendorf said. “They are community anchors. When funding becomes unstable, services are reduced, hours are cut and access is lost. (Senate Bill 8) does not strengthen libraries — it introduces instability.”
akukulka@post-trib.com, mwilkins@chicagotribune.com
