Alaska, Florida, South Dakota Take Actions On Women's Health-Related Legislation

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 18 Jan 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The following highlights recent news of state actions on cancer reproductive health-related legislation.

Abortion

• Alaska: Rep. John Coghill (R) on Monday said he is co-sponsoring a measure (HB 301) that he hopes will ban so-called "partial birth" abortion, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. A 1997 state ban was permanently enjoined by the Alaska Superior Court in 1998. Coghill said the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year to uphold a federal abortion ban (S 3) will allow Alaska to enact the law he has introduced (Milkowski, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1/15). Coghill's proposed law reflects the language in the federal abortion ban (HB 301 and S.3 text, 1/17).
  
  
• South Dakota: Sen. Dennis Schmidt (R) on Tuesday introduced legislation (SB 88) that would require physicians to offer sonograms to women seeking abortions in the state, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. The bill also would require abortion providers to produce annual reports for the Department of Health on how many females viewed the sonograms, how many did not and how many of each of those groups underwent abortions, Schmidt said. "The woman can say 'yes or no,'" Schmidt said, adding, "But if a person sees the sonogram and hears the heartbeat, they might not make the decision they were going to," he said. The same bill was introduced last year and passed the House before but did not clear the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Physicians at Planned Parenthood Minnesota-North Dakota-South Dakota's Sioux Falls Clinic, which offers abortions, perform ultrasounds on pregnant women in order to help determine the gestation of the fetus or embryo (Young, Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 1/15). Kate Looby, South Dakota state director of PPMNS, said the bill is unnecessary. "South Dakota already has some of the most restrictive laws in the country regulating abortion," Looby said, adding, "This is just another attempt to manipulate women who are already facing a very difficult, private decision" (Kafka, AP/Sioux City Journal, 1/15).
  
  
• Virginia: The House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions on Tuesday voted 15-4 to approve a bill (HB 894) that would require clinics that perform at least 25 first-trimester abortions annually to be regulated and inspected as outpatient surgery centers, the AP/Newport News Daily Press reports. Abortion-rights supporters said the measure is an attempt to limit the number of abortion clinics in the state. According to the AP/Daily Press, if the bill passes the House, it likely would fail in the Senate, as has occurred with similar legislation in previous years (AP/Newport News Daily Press, 1/15). Del. Matt Lohr (R), the sponsor of the measure, said that he is "not trying to stop abortions" and that he is "simply looking out for the welfare and safety of the patient" (Harrisonburg Daily News Record, 1/16).

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

• Florida: Rep. Franklin Sands (D) on Tuesday said he plans to file legislation that would require the state to spend $20 million annually for 10 years on grants for stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cells, the AP/Orlando Sentinel reports. Sands sponsored a similar measure the last two years, but the bills did not pass. Sands acknowledged that the bill likely will be difficult to pass in the Republican-controlled Legislature this year, but he noted that some Republicans support financing such research. Sands also is proposing a constitutional amendment with the same purpose. If lawmakers were to approve the amendment, the issue would then go on the state ballot. Two embryonic stem cell-related citizens' initiatives also are circulating -- one that would require spending state money on research and one that would ban it -- but neither measure likely will garner enough signatures by the Feb. 1 deadline for putting the measure on the ballot, the AP/Sentinel reports (Royse, AP/Orlando Sentinel, 1/15).

HPV Vaccines

• Virginia: The House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions on Tuesday voted 13-9 for a bill that would delay for one year a human papillomavirus vaccine regulation for girls entering in the sixth grade, the AP/Washington Times reports. The law (HB 2035), signed by Gov. Tim Kaine (D) last year, allows parents to opt out of the requirement, which some said rendered the law to a suggestion rather than a mandate. The new bill would postpone the law from going into effect from the fall of 2009 until the fall of 2010. Lawmakers who support the delay said it would provide more time to study the vaccine's side effects and for competing vaccinations to reach the market. Kaine on Monday said that he did not think that the requirement should be delayed. HPV vaccines are "available and yet no one is required for any reason to" be vaccinated, Kaine said, adding, "Since it really is an opt-in, I don't know that we need to push it back." All the Republicans on the panel voted for the delay, and all the Democrats voted against the bill (Potter, AP/Washington Times, 1/16).

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