By BRIAN A. HOWEY

INDIANAPOLIS - On Election Day 1986, Hoosier voters in House District 37 delivered an emphatic message to Speaker J. Roberts Dailey. He had spent much of the previous decade blocking a constitutional referendum on a statewide lottery. On this day, he would lose 25 of 29 precincts in his stunning upset loss to Democrat Marc Carmichael.

And, lo and behold, two years later the constitutional lottery referendum was passed by Hoosier voters, some 63% who supported the change.

In his book “Mr. Speaker,” Dailey acknowledged, “My strong opposition to legalizing gambling in Indiana probably had a lot to do with my defeat for reelection in 1986. The opposition said I refused to permit the people to make a decision on the matter by referendum. I regret that the issue became the ‘speaker’s power’ rather than the validity of endorsing gambling."

I tell this story because on Sept. 15, the right to have an abortion in Indiana closes to a 10-week window for pregnancies that came about due rape, incest or a threat to the life of the mother.

While there were few who testified in favor of Senate Bill 1 during two weeks of debate during the Indiana General Assembly's special session, lambasted by pro-lifers that it wasn’t comprehensive enough and pro-choice advocates that it infringed on the rights of women, it passed the Indiana Senate 28-19 and the House 62-38. Gov. Eric Holcomb quickly signed SEA1, saying, “Following the overturning of Roe, I stated clearly that I would be willing to support legislation that made progress in protecting life. In my view, SEA 1 accomplishes this goal following its passage in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly with a solid majority of support."

Those majority votes on SEA1 do not accurately reflect the will of Hoosiers. A poll conducted in late July by Indy Politics and ARW Strategies showed that most Hoosiers think abortion should be legal in all or most cases at 54%, while 40% said it should be illegal in all or most cases.