Oklahoma House Passes Legislation to Regulate Abortion Providers

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed legislation
Thursday aimed at regulating abortion providers. The bill requires
that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a hospital
within 30 miles of the clinic. 

Lawmakers who voted for the bill say this will help ensure the
safety of the woman should any complications occur. However,
pro-choice groups are arguing that the new provision places undue
burden on the clinic, considering Oklahoma’s sparse
population. 

In December, Reason TV covered a similar bill regulating
abortion clinics in Virginia.

Originally released Dec. 16, 2013. 

The original writeup is below:

Last April, the Virginia Board of
Health approved strict
new regulations for abortion providers. Unlike most similar laws,
the regulations cover not just new facilities but existing ones
too. Clinics have until October 2014 to comply, but a high-stakes
legal challenge in the Old Dominion may change that early next
year.

Senate
Bill 924 reclassifies any health clinic that provides five
or more first trimester abortions a month as an outpatient surgical
center rather than a physician’s office, which is the current
classification. The law sets standards for the number of
parking spaces, width of hallways, size of janitor closets, and
more, all which could cost millions of dollars in renovations per
facility. Abortion clinics throughout the state have said
compliance costs will force many of them to close and two
out of 20 abortion clinics have already shut down, citing
financial burdens related to the new regs.

In a reversal of conventional positions, SB 924 has political
conservatives arguing for increasing regulations on small
businesses and liberals arguing against them. The bill initially
passed the Democratic-controlled state senate in 2011 by a vote of
20-20 (Lieutenant Gov. Bill Bolling, a pro-life Republican cast the
tie-breaking vote). Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell eventually signed
it into law after numerous rounds of political
back-and-forth. 

Supporters of abortion rights believe that pro-life legislators in
Virginia and elsewhere
around the country are using retroactive regulations to
get around constitutional guarantees to abortion on demand during
the first trimester of pregnancy. Defenders of the new regulations
say that they are simply protecting the safety of
women.

“This is really necessary to ensure that woman are treated with
care consistent with their human dignity,” says Mallory Quigley of
the Susan B. Anthony
List (SBL), a pro-life organization. A woman who chooses
to have an abortion, says Quigley, should be able to do so without
fearing for her health and safety. Quigley and other supporters
point to the deplorable conditions in abortion clinics
such as
the one run by Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. Gosnell,
who ran an operation described as a “horror house,” was convicted
of murder and other crimes after several patients died at his
clinic.

“Physicians that are practicing in Virginia have been outspoken about
the lack of medical evidence that is deciding [this legislation],”
says Sara Wallace-Keeshen of Falls Church Health Care Center
(FCHC). Located in northern Virginia, FCHC has filed
an administrative
appeal against the new regulations, claiming that
renovations would cost the center $2 million and potentially force
them out of business. 

FCHC center has had no deaths since opening in 2002, an outcome
that is similar to the generally low rate of complications related
to abortions performed in clinics. Indeed, since 1974 state data
show only three deaths during legal abortions. For first-trimester
abortions, the complication rate is 0.3
percent, throwing doubt on the safety argument.

A court date is set for April 2014.

Aprrox. 4 minutes. Produced by Amanda Winkler. Camera
by Winkler and Joshua Swain.