MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2004 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Welfare
By: Senator(s) White
AN ACT ENTITLED THE "ABORTION COMPLICATION REPORTING ACT"; TO REQUIRE PHYSICIANS TO MAKE WRITTEN REPORTS TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ON MEDICAL TREATMENT OR DEATH WHICH IS THE RESULT OF AN INDUCED ABORTION; TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT TO TAKE CERTAIN ACTION REGARDING SUCH REPORTS; TO PROVIDE CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR DISCLOSING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION; TO PROVIDE DETAILS OF THE REPORTS; TO PROVIDE DEFINITIONS; TO PROVIDE CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO COMPLETE SUCH REPORTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Title.
This act may be cited as the "Abortion Complication Reporting Act."
SECTION 2. Findings.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) There exists credible evidence that two (2) to three (3) Mississippi women per week suffer complications following abortions sufficient to require hospitalization. This evidence includes published reports of health care expenditures to treat women with complications following abortion as well as lawsuits filed by injured women.
(b) In two (2) separate decisions the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of laws requiring reporting on abortions. (1974, Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth, and 1992, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.)
(c) The need for credible data on abortions and their complications is supported by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (an organization in support of abortion) in Volume 30, No. 5, September/November, 1998, of their Family Planning Perspectives.
(d) In previous legislation (Section 25-43-1.101 et seq.) the Department of Health has been instructed to codify their regulations and procedures and this act is in accordance with those directives.
(e) With the intention of monitoring and protecting the health of Mississippi women and administering the expenditure of health care funds in a fiscally responsible way we enact this reporting requirement.
SECTION 3. Abortion complications to be reported; entities responsible for reports, timing of reports, annual summary, availability of forms, publishing and communication of requirement, privacy protected.
(1) A physician shall file a written report with the Department of Health regarding each patient who comes under the physician's professional care and requires medical treatment or suffers death that the attending physician has a reasonable basis to believe is a primary, secondary or tertiary result of an induced abortion.
(2) These reports shall be submitted on a monthly basis by the tenth day of the month following the beginning of treatment for the complication. Treatment requiring more than a month shall be reported and updated each month until the treatment has been completed.
(3) The Department of Health shall summarize aggregate data from the reports required under Section 3(1) for purposes of inclusion into the annual Vital Statistics Report.
(4) The department shall develop and distribute or make available online in a downloadable format a standardized form for the report required under Section 3(1).
(5) The department shall communicate this reporting requirement to all medical professional organizations, licensed physicians, hospitals, emergency rooms, abortion facilities, Health Department clinics and ambulatory surgical facilities operating in the state.
(6) The department shall destroy each individual report required by this section and each copy of the report after retaining the report for five (5) years after the date the report is received.
(7) The report required under Section 3 shall not contain the name of the woman, common identifiers such as her social security number or motor vehicle operator's license number or other information or identifiers that would make it possible to identify in any manner or under any circumstances an individual who has obtained or seeks to obtain an abortion. A state agency shall not compare data in an electronic or other information system file with data in another electronic or other information system that would result in identifying in any manner or under any circumstances an individual obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion. Statistical information that may reveal the identity of a woman obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion shall not be maintained.
(8) The department or an employee of the department shall not disclose to a person or entity outside the department the reports or the contents of the reports required by this section in a manner or fashion so as to permit the person or entity to whom the report is disclosed to identify in any way the person who is the subject of the report.
(9) A person who discloses confidential identifying information in violation of this section is guilty of a felony punishable, upon conviction, by imprisonment for not more than three (3) years, or a fine of not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or both.
SECTION 4. Definitions.
As used in this act:
(a) "Abortion" means that term as defined in Section 41-7-173.
(b) "Medical treatment" means, but is not limited to, hospitalization, laboratory tests, surgery, prescription of drugs.
(c) "Department" means the State Department of Health.
SECTION 5. Details of data to be reported.
(1) Each report of medical treatment following abortion required under Section 3 shall contain the following information:
(a) The age and race of the patient.
(b) The characteristics of the patient, including residency status, county of residence, marital status, education, number of living children, number of previous abortions.
(c) The date the abortion was performed and the method used, if known.
(d) The name of the facility where the abortion was performed.
(e) The number of previous pregnancies and their outcome.
(f) The condition of the patient which led to treatment, including, but not limited to, pelvic infection, hemorrhage, damage to pelvic organs, renal failure, metabolic disorder, shock, embolism, coma or death.
(g) The total amount billed to cover the treatment. Also indicate whether the treatment was billed to Medicaid, insurance, private pay or other method. This should include charges for physician, hospital, emergency room, prescription or other drugs, laboratory tests, and any other costs for the treatment rendered.
(h) The charges are to be coded with IDC-9 classification numbers in such a way as to distinguish treatment following induced abortions from treatments following ectopic or molar pregnancies.
(2) Nothing in this act shall be construed as an instruction to discontinue collecting data currently being collected.
SECTION 6. Failure to complete form; penalty.
Willful violation of the provisions of this act shall constitute a misdemeanor and shall be punishable as provided for by law. No hospital, its officers, employees or medical and nursing personnel practicing therein, shall be civilly liable for violation of said sections except to the extent of liability for actual damages in a civil action for willful or reckless and wanton acts or omissions constituting such violation. Such liability shall be subject, however, to any immunities or limitations of liability or damages provided by law.
SECTION 7. Severability.
The provisions of this act are declared to be severable, and if any provision, word, phrase or clause of this act or the application thereof to any person shall be held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this act.
SECTION 8. Effective date.
This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2004.