By Vicki Saporta (National Abortion Federation) at RH Reality Check:

In late February, California Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) introduced a bill in the state Senate that would allow nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), and nurse midwives (CNMs) to provide first trimester aspiration abortion care. Although the bill had support from leading medical groups in the state, and was even co-sponsored by the heads of both legislative houses, Sen. Kehoe withdrew the bill Friday because it lacked enough votes to pass a key legislative committee.

NPs, CNMs, and PAs — collectively referred to as advanced practice clinicians (APCs) — play an increasingly important role in the delivery of a range of health care services in the United States, and are competent providers of prenatal and postpartum care; family planning services; and gynecological care. In some parts of California—especially rural areas — women may see an APC for the rest of their health care, but are forced to travel outside their communities in order to obtain the abortion care they need. This legislation would have allowed women to obtain safe, early abortion care in their communities, from their current health care providers.

Abortion is well within the scope of practice of APCs and it’s unfortunate that some California Senators missed this point.

by Robin Marty

Utah is about to break new ground this week with a new law scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday that will force women seeking a safe, legal abortion to endure the country’s longest waiting period between her first visit to a clinic and the time of the actual procedure. Although South Dakota was the first to pass a 72-hour rule, their law was blocked by the courts before it could ever go into effect.

It’s appears likely that unlike in South Dakota, abortion providers in Utah may take a “wait and see” attitude to discern exactly how the law affects women seeking an abortion, rather than sue for an injunction immediately. But that doesn’t mean they think it’s a constitutional — or even enforceable — law.

Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

[Planned Parenthood of Utah Director Karrie] Galloway said the way the law was written, no one is in charge of overseeing compliance or writing rules so that everyone knows what is required under the statute.

“We’re left with a system that right now puts the burden — in fact a possible criminal burden — on the physician providing the procedure with no verifiable process for confirming the informed consent.”

The Utah Department of Health’s Nan Streeter confirms that the law gives her agency no oversight authority.

“We talked with our attorney and also with the deputy director of the department to ask about what we were responsible for, and the way the law was written, the only authority the Department of Health has is related to the development of the abortion consent materials,” said Streeter, deputy director of the Division of Family Health and Preparedness. “There’s no provision for the department to either enforce or oversee the consent process.”

Placing criminal burder on an abortion provider without providing clear oversight of exactly what he or she has to do in order to protect him or herself from charges? That sounds quite a bit like nearly every other piece of anti-choice legislation, determined to create a process so laden with potential legal pitfalls that no doctor will feel comfortable providing abortions.

From Robin Marty at RH Reality Check:

On May 1st, a group of about 50 people gathered in Fargo, North Dakota. Their intent? To try and “shut down” the only clinic in the state that provides pregnancy terminations, in the hopes to make it an “abortion-free” state.

Leading the charge was Operation Save America, under the leadership of Rev. Flip Benham. Best known for his belief in “justifiable homicide” and his “Wanted” posters styled to make doctors who provide safe abortion care and those who employ them look like Old West villains (and with the “Dead or Alive” implied), Benham has been arrrested multiple times for stalking.

The backstory, from Ann Rose at RH Reality Check:

New Woman All Women in Birmingham Alabama is the abortion clinic bombed by Eric Rudolph in 1998 resulting in the death of a police officer and the maiming of a nurse. It has now been “bombed” by the Alabama Department of Public Health under the direction presumably of anti-abortion Governor Robert J. Bentley, a dermatologist. 

In February, the clinic transferred two patients to the hospital because of a medication error. The transfer was routine and based on good medical care. The anti-choice protesters followed the ambulance harassed the patients and got their private medical information.  The patients were never in any danger and were released with no complications. The protesters then pressured the Alabama Department of Public Health to investigate the clinic. ADPH spent over 4 weeks in the clinic investigating and digging and coming up with 76 violations, one of which was failure to read the doctor’s handwriting and cited 10 or so different ways. They ordered the clinic closed by May 18th.

The owner Diane Derzis, a longtime friend of mine, reached an agreement with the state for someone else to take over the management of the clinic by granting a license to another party to keep the clinic open. Now, the state is saying that they are denying the license because the new owner is closely involved with Diane, and Diane stands to still profit from the clinic because rent is tied to revenues, a process that happens in many malls in this country.

Let’s make some noise. Tell ADPH to back off their politically-motivated take down of New Woman All Women and to focus instead on actual health issues in the state.

It is also helpful to remind them that the less access people have to safe abortion procedures, the more unsafe, life-threatening abortions that will take place. There is no such thing as no abortions, only no safe abortions.

If the ADPH really cared about health/lives/safety, they would not be shutting down New Woman All Women.

Rose gives the following contact information for Alabama Health Department officials:

Dr. Donald E. Williamson, State Health Officer
Phone: (334) 206-5200
Email: sho@adph.state.al.us
Email: DrDonaldWilliamson@adph.state.al.us

Dr. Walter T. Geary, Medical Director, Bureau of Health Provider Standards
Phone: (334) 206-5366
Email: wt.geary@adph.state.al.us

Brian Hale, Legal Counsel
Phone: (334) 206-5209

You can also reach Alabama Department of Public Health these ways:

• Twitter (@ALPublicHealth)
• Facebook
• Email
• or by phone (1-800-ALA-1818).  

The Governor of Alabama, Robert J. Bentley, can be reached:

• on Twitter (@GovernorBentley)
• on Facebook (though it does not appear that you can comment)
• by Email
• by phone (334) 242-7100)

The message is simple: The ADPH should be in the business of health, not politics.

by Robin Marty

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has just signed into law an omnibus package of abortion restrictions passed by the state legislature, which includes a so called “fetal pain” ban that makes it illegal to have an abortion after 20 weeks gestation, or 18 weeks post-fertilization.

Unlike other “20-week” bans passed by the states, this ban actually outlaws the procedure two weeks earlier, as other bans are written to cut off legal abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization. By rolling back the cutoff by two weeks, the state is the first to cut into the time frame where most women are likely to begin screening for fetal anomalies, meaning more women will be forced to carry all pregnancies to term regardless of if there are any issues with the fetus.

The only exception to this new rule is if continuing the pregnancy will “create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

Follow Robin Marty on Twitter, @robinmarty

By Kari Ann Rinker

Oklahoma is on the verge of becoming the first state to pass a “personhood” bill. The state Senate has already passed the bill and the House is expected to pass the legislation as  early as today. 

Anti-choice Governor Mary Falin has not indicated whether she will sign this legislation, but being anti-choice and all… there is a very good chance that she will.  Credo has issued a call to action surrounding SB 1433.