The redistricting saga comes to an end.

Indiana students may have to lock up cell phones, and Hoosier health providers weigh in on vaccination changes.

From the television studios at Wfyi Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending December 12th.

2025 Indiana Week in Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

Indiana lawmakers voted 31 to 19 against congressional redistricting called for by President Donald Trump and his attempt to help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections.

Ben Thorpe has more.

The defeat in the Indiana Senate, where 40 of the 50 members are Republicans, is the first time Trump's redistricting campaign has been voted down by members of his own party.

Republican Senator Greg Goode was the first lawmaker to face a swatting attempt, and has been called out on social media by Trump himself.

Goode called on lawmakers to focus on what really matters to constituents issues of affordability and job creation.

My vote on this legislation will reflect just that common sense.

After the vote, Republican Senator Mike young spoke on the bill's failure.

We've cost our nation.

We don't know how much, but we've cost our nation.

Governor Mike Braun supported Trump's demand for redistricting.

In a statement, he threatened to make primary challengers running against senators who did not support redistricting.

So is this the end of the redistricting drama in Indiana?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel: Democrat Ann Delaney Republican, Mike OBrien Oseye Boyd, editor in chief at Mirror Indy And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI so Ann the country was watching Indiana yesterday.

I think the.

World was watching Indiana.

It was getting a lot of obvious attention in the news.

Did Indiana lawmakers get this right?

Oh, there's no question that they got it right.

And if you if, you know, if you have any sense of the institution or the rules that we play by it, they knew or even the ones who voted.

Well, not all of the ones.

Some of them are delusional, but but on many of the people who voted for this to do redistricting knew it was the wrong thing to do.

But frankly, afraid not to do it.

So yes, they did the right thing.

They resisted the threats, they resisted the attempt, the intimidation, and they made the right decision.

This is exactly what should have happened.

And frankly, they deserve a lot of credit for standing up.

And I don't think anybody is going to question whether or not Senator break can count from here on out.

He's been saying all along.

He didn't say it was a bad idea or we shouldn't do it.

The votes aren't there, the votes aren't there.

And they weren't there.

And they weren't there by a substantial number, not 1 or 2, which everybody was thinking, but a substantial number.

So it's good.

And I thought Indiana looked Indiana looked good to the rest of the country.

And that's that's not something they held though.

Mike, we did hear, you know, some of those threats, you know, coming from the vice president, about, you know, oh, Indiana roads aren't going to be paved then.

And we're not going to be sending, you know, any money to Indiana.

Are those threats something that, you know, Hoosiers should be scared about now?

Sure.

I think yeah, I think so.

I mean, they hold the purse strings.

you know, the mental gymnastics that self-described conservatives had to go through to make sure that we're still feeding off of the federal treasury was remarkable to me.

That's not the right.

I mean, yes, we rely on the federal government for a lot.

but but the conservative argument couldn't, you know, shouldn't have been.

Oh, my God, what about our Medicaid funding?

You know, it's like you're like, you're not winning a lot of hearts and minds here.

It's like in the Republican Republican circles with, you know, with that argument, I think the, you know, the threats on the political side, on are these people going to be primaried?

I mean, if you really look at the it's like five people.

There's, there's only seven Republican senators that voted no and are also up for reelection this year, not counting the retirements and two of our, primaries, Jim Buck, and Spencer Deery and Spencer Jerry only is the guy who has won on this issue because he came out so hard against it so early.

so you're left with five others?

two were not Northwest Indiana, Rick Neumeyer and Vander now.

those guys aren't losing.

You're not going to go primary.

The Lake County Republican chairman.

And it's.

And for me, it's like, you know, as a party guy, it's weird.

A little bit of a pickle here.

So it's the you know, the governor's going to run these, ostensibly run these campaigns against Republican senators who voted no.

How are we going to do that?

So now we have the Senate Majority Campaign Committee is going to run to protect them.

The state party going to run these races like there's so many questions waking up this morning.

This is a party guy where there's so many unanswered questions coming out of this from like, I don't even know how any of that works.

Like, like are we are we creating new organizations?

Is a third party going to come in from out of state?

You know, and we've got all these DC guys smugly mouthing off about how they're going to come in here.

And, you know, at some point the Republican Party in Indiana has got to like, get back to home and, and recognize that, like, hey, we're all in this together.

And we've built some great things here.

We've elected some great people.

And to now just bow down to these outside groups and that have deep pockets and, and are threatening to come in and run these Twitter campaigns and all this other stuff.

It's like we all need to go back to state party and like get on the same page here.

And we need we need leadership in that.

And we don't have it right now and, and we and we, we really need it because what's at risk is it's not winning forever.

Like we've we've just gotten to this place as a party where we just assume the outcome.

And that is not true.

We don't know what's going to happen in 2026 or 2028.

And as the the Trump page is beginning to turn, what does that mean?

And Democrats have a fully funded, well known name, legacy name coming to, you know, threatening, you know, coming into to run for secretary of state, run for governor or whatever.

you know, and we all need to, like, spend the next three weeks, like, getting some rest and getting a reality check.

Well, but I don't I don't know how you do that when you have the governor and the lieutenant governor coming out right out of the chute saying they're going after these people, right?

Did they have a legislative agenda?

They want to get through the Senate, I wonder?

Maybe they don't.

It just doesn't.

Work.

Yeah, apparently we'll get it soon.

But I also want to point here.

The interesting part is we've spent four months being told how absolutely vital it is to win the U.S.

House, to continue the president's, you know, agenda.

And yet now they're they'd rather spend millions on state Senate races in Indiana than to actually put that money.

Yeah, put that money into congressional races that are close and that you could maybe pick up.

I mean, it doesn't make a lot of logistical sense to me either.

The whole thing doesn't he?

He's going to lose 50 seats.

He's going to lose 50 seats in that midterm election.

Okay.

Trump is oh.

So this is around the edges anyway.

I mean we have seen you know and 2026 is as you know a lot has been happening this year and very quickly.

So you know does this become you know a real worry for lawmakers.

Now.

Do they need to be buckling down and like, thinking about next year's elections right away, or are we going to be on to the next thing?

Well, I think that has yet to be seen.

But I do think that was part of the thinking is what would the future hold?

And like Mike said, we don't really know.

There's a lot of questions, that remain unanswered for right now.

And we'll find out some in the next few weeks.

But I think also we saw lawmakers decide we're not going to be bullied by Washington.

we are here for.

This conservative thing I've ever heard.

Well, it's.

It's like it's a throwback flip.

It's a throwback to the 90s, right?

Where we're not going to be.

We don't listen to what Washington says, and we we're Indiana.

so it was kind of refreshing to see that happen again, where we're threatened by people are afraid of will.

President Trump won't do this or he will do this to Indiana.

And people are saying, we're going to do what Indiana wants us to do.

First and foremost, I appreciate it that well.

I also appreciate it.

And I'm sure you saw, you know, and Nikki were there, so many people coming out, you know, the community really getting involved.

They really were.

They really were.

And they were adamant about it.

And they were people who are not as political as the rest of us are.

You know, they may vote, certainly, but they don't march.

They probably don't contribute.

But yet they felt strongly enough about this issue to take time in the cold to come down there and demonstrate.

And that's, I think that had an impact from all over and from all over as well.

And people really engaged in the process.

And I think really maybe, you know, understanding a little bit more about how that goes down.

And maybe encouraged that this outcome was a result of their activity, maybe they'll stay.

Engaged.

You were there, Nikki.

How is the feeling?

You know, outside the chamber?

I mean, the chamber was full.

The hallways were full.

spirits, tension at first and then celebration outside.

You know, I think lawmakers took a collective.

You know, I was chatting with several of them as they went off for the weekends and the holidays, and they just all, you know, obviously people on the pro side were frustrated, but I think everyone was happy to move on from this topic.

That has been such a big thing hanging over the state for so many months.

Are you happy to move on from this topic?

Mike?

Yes, or against it?

I could tell.

Well, well, I'm sure it won't be the last that we're hearing of it, but we will go on to our second topic today.

Indiana schools are already banned cell phones during instructional time, but a new proposal would lock them away for the entire day.

Eric Wedel reports that lawmakers want to close loopholes in the current law.

State Senator Jeff Rat says the current rules vary too much from classroom to classroom.

His bill would require schools to implement a no device policy or use secure storage pouches.

From the first bell to dismissal, rant says the current system forces teachers to act as police rather than educators, but I think it's pretty onerous on a teacher to pay attention and make sure they're doing the best job they can to educate kids and, you know, getting getting after him on cell phones.

The state's largest teacher's union, the Indiana State Teachers Association, supports the stricter ban, but is asking lawmakers for $5 million to help districts pay for the storage equipment.

So, Mike, maybe the first legislation that we saw last year wasn't perfect.

Should we have stricter rules here in place?

I get it.

And I understand the teachers are fighting against distraction and and, you know, kids that are looking down and doing this.

on the other hand, I really like hearing from my kids during the day because I do share things with me, like, you know, fun things that happen during the day or a test that they did not test or, or something.

I guess those those are fun little updates that I get throughout the day.

They're normally doing, hopefully between classes.

I know my son was in.

I'm sure when my son was in high school, I was playing, you know, he's sending me games to play pool and darts on a swing and I'm like, I'm like, okay, that's that's too much.

But, but I but I, you know, I get what teachers are having to, to face, but you know police and this is probably going to be, you know, practical.

There's a practical limitation to what you can do here.

Yeah.

Right.

I hear from my.

Tone and it's mostly stop put it on the teachers.

It's mostly on the parents to make sure that their kids are using these things when they when it's when it's appropriate and paying attention when they should.

I don't know, though.

You know, of course, like my kids do 100% of.

How much that's going to translate.

Right?

Like my daughter does 100% of the time.

But also, you know, that's what we're hearing from, you know, teens that are actively in the classroom.

And this issue, you know, is something that, maybe just came up so, so quickly in a state like Indiana, just, unprepared perhaps.

Well, I mean, it used to be that having a cell phone was, you know, unusual.

It's not anymore.

They're starting in grade school with these, so I don't know how you police it.

And if they're supposed to be put in a secure unit and it has a $5 million price tag, I doubt that's going to happen.

Right.

That's part of the legislation.

Happening, though.

I mean, I think the bill they passed in 2024, frankly, was the one that had the enforcement problem because you could pull it out in the hallway or at lunch or, you know, and so kids were covertly they still had it on them.

So the teachers were in this constant battle of trying to do it.

I mean, Fort Wayne Community Schools put this in, last year that you get a pouch, you walk in in the morning, you put the phone in the pouch, it's locked for the day.

It unlocks at dismissal.

I mean, these exist and are used in lots of places.

And I actually think this bill will be far easier to enforce than anything they passed before.

And something that we're hearing, too, is that, you know, we do want students to have contact with us during the day for safety issues.

You know, if something happened in my daughter's school, I would want to know right away.

Is that something that lawmakers should be considering?

Okay.

Yeah.

Yes they should.

I actually, think this is a little bit of overreach.

to have a law dictating what schools can do should be up to schools, school that could have control of what they want to do in their districts about phones.

People are putting them in the bags.

they've been doing that for a long time.

You can go to concerts and they do that at concerts as well.

But a lot of parents want that access to their child during the day, especially when we have as many school shootings as we do now.

All these things are occurring that make parents nervous every day to send their kids to school.

They also want access.

So I don't know.

Yes, it's a whole thing.

Teachers, police in the phone like distractions, but it'll be something else.

I know they're trying to work on laptops and all that, but, you know, kids can text off of other devices.

They will find a way.

Your kids will find a way.

Well, they're talking about the policing, the fines.

But how much policing are we going to do for devices?

That's a lot of policing.

And again, kids will find a way, as they always do.

That's what I'm hearing, that they're already finding ways around and they.

Weren't behind technology.

Always.

What exactly.

Well it's time now for our viewer a viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question should Indiana schools ban cell phones?

Answer yes or no.

Last week's question posed to viewers will having infants at work help Hoosier families?

35% saying yes and 65% saying no.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.org/i w I r and look for the poll.

Federal vaccine advisers voted last week to scale back guidance on hepatitis B shots for newborns.

As Farah Anderson reports, health advocates in Indiana worry the change could deepen vaccine hesitancy.

Sarah Dillard with the Indiana Immunization Coalition says years of combating vaccine hesitancy have prepared the group for this moment.

Last week, advisers for the centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to narrow their recommendation for getting the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, limiting it to newborns whose mothers test positive for the virus or whose status is unknown.

Dillard says the rollback, combined with online misinformation, is making new parents even more hesitant.

Every family, they deserve the access to strong evidence based information.

The advisers who pushed for the change were appointed by U.S.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime critic of vaccines.

The Indiana Immunization Coalition urges parents to talk with their pediatrician about the risks and the recommended vaccine schedule for newborns.

I mean, we hear all the time thinking, you know, talk to your doctor, but, you know, Indiana parents that are worried about this issue, you of what what should they make of this gotten.

So bad for parents now?

I mean, my kids are grown and so we don't have that issue, but, I other than talking to their doctor, I don't know what to do to tell them.

I kind of hope and I think individual states are now starting to get more involved, like it used to be, that they would just put in their state law.

We follow the federal guidance, you know, but states are going to have to get a little more involved if they want to help.

I mean, these vaccines for for hepatitis, I mean, gosh, it stops this major disease that could cost millions over someone's life for this tiny little shot when they're young.

And so, you know, there's no doubting its efficacy, as we've seen in recent decades.

But apparently that's not enough.

I think, you know, that is one of the major concerns is that, you know, the science is just being so questioned right now.

And, you know, everything that, parents and families have heard, you know, throughout, throughout time being questioned, like, is that, something that that Hoosier families should be.

Well, I think the, the potential for misinformation and mistakes in judgment come from this kind of advice.

Anybody who would take advice from a bunch of, of, ideologues who put ideology ahead of health needs to have their heads examined.

You go to your doctor, the doctor can tell you the efficacy of the vaccine and what's involved in it.

And yes, we ought to be having well, that's why we don't have polio.

That's why we don't have measles, except in Texas.

That's why all of these things work.

And they work for a reason.

They've never had any evidence that it was linked to autism or any of the other nonsense that they feed.

So you absolutely should listen to your doctor and pay no attention to the federal Government Vaccine Advisory Council.

Should Indiana be taking more measures?

You know, do what we want here in the state and not just follow a federal guidance.

Look, I got a political science degree from IU.

I don't know.

Where I'm going to go.

I'm going to go Google it.

I'm, you know, I'm going to listen to the doctors saying, yeah, here's your newborn baby.

Here's what it here's what it should have.

And that is the start, middle and end for me and for me.

But do you think that, you know, that's what Indiana parents are doing and that's, and that's what we will continue to do moving forward?

Or is there, you know, just too much confusion.

I think people are confused.

you have a lot of, with Nikki.

I'm Mike.

I'm so glad I have to deal with this.

because you do have parents who are concerned who have been hearing concerns for years and years.

And yes, they may be ideologues, but as a regular person, I don't know the difference in ideologue and what the sign says.

And he's and he's questioning the science.

So and then if my doctor is saying something that I think might not be right, what do I do?

I think there's a lot of confusion, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation.

And it's going to trickle down and it's going to harm.

It's going to harm kids.

What do you think?

If we see, like a measles outbreak here in Indiana, that people will pay attention to the.

Cases earlier this year?

I mean, we technically met the thing for an outbreak because I think we got 5 or 6 cases.

But, you know, I mean, well, we're going to talk about another topic here in a minute that is kind of related.

And I think we'll we'll chat about that soon.

Yeah.

We are going to talk about, another health topic today.

Indiana's infant mortality rate was at a historic low last year, according to Indiana Department of Health.

But despite the decrease, black infants continuing to die at higher rates.

Indiana Public Broadcasting's to Marion Cunningham reports on the factors that play into Indiana's black infant mortality rates.

In 2023, black infants were.

Dying before their.

First birthday and nearly double the rate compared to other racial or ethnic groups.

Joy Crenshaw is the president of the Indiana Black Breastfeeding Coalition.

She says prenatal care is vital during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester.

But many women don't receive care until they are.

12 weeks pregnant.

Crenshaw also says some health care providers have an unconscious bias against black women, which makes it difficult for their health concerns to be taken seriously.

And so that dismissive thing that happens.

Then we have poor.

Outcomes.

Crenshaw says providers need to address that bias in order to mitigate the issue.

So this is an issue that the state has been focused on for quite a while.

Infant mortality.

Maternal mortality rates have been very high across the board in Indiana.

and again, we're seeing, you know, this disparity, it doesn't look like we've made a lot of movement in that part of the issue.

No, I mean, the unconscious bias, implicit bias is real.

We found this for, studies have found this for a while now.

And so when we talk about implicit bias or unconscious bias, I think we need to think about it's more than just racism.

There's is also classism.

it's also ageism.

It's like also, thinking that people who are lower income, lower socioeconomic groups are not as intelligent and not listening to women who tell you something's going on with me or something's going on with my child, it's dismissing those those women who are saying, I have a concern here.

And that often happens because you don't think this person is intelligent or knows what they're talking about.

There's also this belief that black women don't feel pain the same way that white women do.

So if I tell you that I'm in pain, it's dismissed a lot of times.

so we have all these things happen, and then you see the result of this.

in addition to the implicit bias, you also have, I think the who was 12 weeks are not getting care.

So then you have an access to care.

we're talking about Medicaid now being cut.

We have all these things happening in our society which contributes to this rate.

So we've seen the decrease.

Well, I don't think the decrease is, it's great, but it's still horrible, right?

I mean, to lose one baby is is not a good thing.

We should celebrate, this decrease the way we are, but that's just my fault.

I done some reporting.

You know, a number of years ago about doulas at the Indiana State House.

And there was a bill to, you know, increase that access.

We heard from a lot of black mothers that, you know, that was something that they really did want.

But in the end, there wasn't the money behind it, which was a pretty small amount of money from what I remember.

Yeah.

They did not, fund that program.

I think in general, what we also do be cautious about is we have seen some improvement in this mortality rate, which is fantastic, but this data is in arrears.

And unfortunately we made improvement because of investments that previous administrations put into health policy.

And now we've pulled back on that.

So I'm very concerned that these stats are just going to immediately revert back the other way.

And also you have to look at our abortion ban where wherever you stand, that means some children are being born with, you know, medical diagnoses that, probably mean they're going to die very quickly.

And so our infant mortality rate will go up based on that alone, because in the past, women would have maybe move forward with an abortion, and now, they can't.

Yeah.

Well, and I mean, Indiana has historically lagged behind in many different health measures.

And and the disparity in those measures is just this just another case.

It's another obvious, and tragic example of, of that kind of, inability to to think ahead.

You think from election to election.

And so it's all about what money is there.

You don't think long term that if you make an investment in health care and if you make an investment in accessibility, it pays off.

You know, I've I've often said that one of my biggest complaints about the Republicans attitude toward reproductive rights is that they're birthers.

They're not right to life.

They don't look at the entire picture of what needs to happen in order to make quality of life for people who need assistance.

And the results speak for themselves.

I mean, we heard, Governor Holcomb mentioned that, you know, maternal mortality rates, infant mortality is one of the biggest things that he was on, thought that he, you know, kind of missed the mark on should politicians really focus on this?

Well, he felt like he didn't he hadn't done enough, but he heard what he had done.

What he did do was emphasize it and fund it and support increases in public health funding.

I'm on the Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation Board.

And so for US County Hospital, one of the the priorities of Doctor Harris and the team there, is very focused on preventative on preventative medicine.

They've put a lot of money and a lot of effort into into prevention to try to two things bend the cost curve, but also improve the improve the outcomes of this in a lot of other areas.

and we we've seen in the whole administration, we saw with that kind of emphasis was and funding was put in place.

It did have a they did have a positive outcome.

And this is this data points evidence of that.

but it's, it's also on our die the reaction to die that's missed heart on the other end is, is a lack of recognition that minority and socioeconomic factors do play a role in how sick some kids, some kids get differently than than white kids or and and that needs to be talked up.

That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been ... Political Strategist Elise Shrock Republican, Mike OBrien Oseye Boyd, editor in chief at Mirror Indy And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week In Reviews podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/iwir or on the PBS App.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI, an association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.