What Rep. Matthew Hill of Tennessee is up to...
A scary new piece of legislation has been introduced in Tennessee, legislation that could mandate the state create detailed lists of the MD's who perform abortion procedures and identifying statistical info on each of their patients.
Essentially, the state will create a convenient list for anyone interested in harassing MD's who perform abortions or their patients. Here are some of the highlights:
"A report of each abortion performed shall be made to the department of health"
While the bill does specify that patients will not be identified by name, it does require the following information be disclosed about each INDIVIDUAL patient (i.e. this is not statistics. This is identifying information that paints a specific portrait of each patient down to their county of residence):
(1) Identification of the physician who performed the abortion and
the physician’s office, clinic, hospital or other facility
(2) The county and state in which the woman resides
(3) The woman’s age, race and marital status;
(4) The number of prior pregnancies and prior abortions of the woman;
(5) The gestational age in number of weeks of the fetus at time of abortion
(6) The type of procedure performed or prescribed and the date of the
(7) Pre-existing medical conditions of the woman which would complicate
pregnancy, if any, and, if known, any medical complication which
resulted from the abortion itself.
The bill does detail that this information will be used for statistical purposes, it does not state what will be done to keep the health information confidential in the process of reporting. The bill does let us know that anyone who "willfully discloses any information obtained from reports filed" is simply guilty of a misdemeanor. Let's just ignore the fact that disclosure of such private health information regarding abortion can lead to harassment or even violence against the individual. But if you happen to be the underpaid pro-life (or crooked and offered a bribe) clerk of the county who is tasked with entering this information into a database, it may be worth the slap on the wrist to provide this information to anti-choice harassment groups.
Meanwhile, if you are late in submitting your reports or forget to send a few along you can loose your license. You know, that thing you went through 10+ years of medical training for? Your livelihood?
To view bill in its full text visit here: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/107/Bill/HB3808.pdf
The language in this bill does not even touch on HIPPA requirements for the confidentiality of patient records. Further, the level of statistical information required does not jive up. What we have is yet another bit of legislation aimed at creating more paperwork for abortion care providers and thus more opportunities to screw up and loose your license. Further, the bill suggests
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