Legislative battles over abortion could intensify this year, with both state and federal lawmakers eyeing additional restrictions on access to the procedure.
And ob.gyns. are finding themselves in the middle once again, with some opposing legislative interference in the physician-patient relationship and others supporting increased regulation of abortion providers.
Just days after the start of the 114th Congress, lawmakers introduced H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation, citing the existence of fetal pain at that point in development. The bill includes exceptions when an abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman, or in cases of rape or incest.
Elizabeth Nash
And while most state legislatures are just gearing up, experts expect to see significant activity on abortion again this year.
Over the last 4 years, state governments have enacted 231 laws limiting access to abortion, with 26 new laws being passed in 2014, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.
In 2014, Oklahoma added a requirement that abortion counseling include information on the availability of perinatal hospice when a woman is seeking an abortion because of a fetal abnormality. In Alabama, lawmakers extended the waiting period between counseling and obtaining an abortion from 24 to 48 hours. Meanwhile, Mississippi lawmakers banned abortion at 18 weeks post fertilization.
his year will likely be more active than 2014, said Elizabeth Nash, the senior state issues associate at the Guttmacher Institute, since some state legislatures that had been actively targeting abortion access, such as Texas, did not meet last year, and others had shortened sessions.
Dr. Robert M. Wah
In addition, more Republican governors and state legislators are taking office in 2015. Republicans now control both legislative chambers and the governor’s office in 23 states. Debate around H.R. 36 also could spur activity at the state level, she said.
For those states that do pursue abortion legislation in 2015, Ms. Nash said she expects them to build on existing restrictions, such as extending the waiting period between mandated counseling and an abortion.
“States will look at existing restrictions and try to make them more burdensome,” she said.
The movement toward increasing barriers to abortion access has some physicians crying foul.
Dr. Nancy L. Stanwood, the section chief for family planning at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and the board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said many of these proposals claim to be aimed at making abortion safer, but are really a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” because they delay necessary care, jeopardizing safety.
“As a general rule, all of these restrictions do interfere with the doctor-patient relationship,” she said. “I think it has chilling effects on the entire profession.”