Daily Women's Health Policy Report Summarizes Coverage Of State Abortion Legislation

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 06 Feb 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Media sources recently reported on abortion-related bills in Indiana, New Mexico, South Carolina and Utah. Summaries appear below.

~ Indiana: The state Senate Health Committee voted 5-4 to approve a bill (SB 89) that would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital in the county where the procedures are performed or an adjacent county, the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. State legislators have considered similar legislation before, but the measures have never passed both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House. Supporters of the bill argue that it will increase patient safety by providing care for patients who experience complications. Opponents say that abortion already is heavily regulated in Indiana and that complications are rare. They note that emergency care is available at any hospital, regardless of whether the abortion provider has admitting privileges. Some Indiana counties are considering similar proposals (Martin, AP/Chicago Tribune, 2/3).

~ New Mexico: The state House Committee on Consumer and Public Affairs approved a bill (HB 256) that would remove an unenforceable state law that criminalized abortion, the AP/Alamogordo Daily News reports. Although the state's antiabortion law has not been enforceable since Roe v. Wade, bill sponsor Rep. Mimi Stewart (D) said the measure "simply codifies what's already happening." The bill also would prohibit the state from interfering with a woman's rights to abortion and to obtain and use birth control. Abortion-rights advocates are concerned that if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, the abortion ban in state law could be revived. Opponents of the bill say it is overly vague and could lead to the violation of rights of medical providers who object to abortion on religious or moral grounds (Baker, AP/Alamogordo Daily News, 2/4).

~ South Carolina: Legislators advanced a bill to the House floor that would require women to wait 24 hours after viewing an ultrasound before being allowed to have an abortion, the AP/Orangeburg Times and Democrat reports. Currently, South Carolina law requires a one-hour wait after viewing an ultrasound before an abortion is performed. The new bill states that the 24-hour wait would be required only if an ultrasound is performed. Lawmakers also voted 14-11 to defeat a provision that would have excluded rape victims from the 24-hour requirement. In addition, Democrats unsuccessfully proposed that the 24-hour waiting period could begin once a woman obtained information regarding fetal development by mail, over the Internet or through a county health clinic. According to state Rep. James Smith (D), 20 states have a 24-hour wait requirement, but no state requires that the waiting period begin after an ultrasound. Abortion-rights supporters said that clinics already perform ultrasounds in nearly all cases because state law requires providers to tell women the gestational age of the fetus. Abortion-rights supporters also note that requiring women to make two trips to clinics would create a burden for women, especially low-income, rural women who might need to travel to one of the state's three abortion clinics (Adcox, AP/Orangeburg Times and Democrat, 2/3).

~ Utah: The state House this week approved two abortion-related bills -- HB 90S1, which would increase the penalty for an individual providing an illegal abortion, and HB 222, which requires doctors to inform women seeking abortions about anesthesia options for fetuses after 20 weeks' gestation, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. According to the Tribune, HB 90S1, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray (R), also narrows the definition of a legal abortion to cases in which there could be death or "irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of a woman," excluding impairments related to mental health. The bill would also reclassify the performance of an illegal abortion from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony. Both bills were supported by all Republicans present, along with a few Democrats. The measures now head to the state Senate (Mcfarland, Salt Lake Tribune, 2/3).

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