Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether a particular abortion regulation is permissible. The bill, written by pro-life Louisiana Democrat Katrina Jackson, seeks to require hospital admitting privileges from abortion doctors.
In a little-noticed unanimous vote just days earlier, all 12 members of D.C. Council approved a wholly new legal paradigm: banning altogether any regulation that relates to reproductive healthcare.
The bill, introduced by Councilmember David Grosso, awaits signing by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Amendment Act, despite its name, does not in fact alter access to abortion in D.C., where the procedure is available on-demand and without apology, up to nine months, for any reason.
What it does do is ban D.C. Council or municipal officials from “regulating” or “interfering” with reproductive health care.
Such a broad law would be risky anywhere, but in the District of Columbia, it’s madness. The nation’s capital has the dubious distinction of leading the nation in black maternal mortality, yet the D.C. Council is set to absolve itself of responsibility for reasonable, common-sense regulation.
An article published in the trademark journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists gave D.C. the highest mean mortality rate in the period 2005 to 2014 — higher than any single state. In 2018, USA Today found that women in D.C. die during childbirth at a rate seven times higher than women in California and one and a half times higher than women in Maryland. Up to 75% of maternal deaths in D.C. are black women, who die nationwide at a rate two to three times the rate of white women.
To make matters worse, many black women are stuck in a “maternity desert” here in the District, after the 2017 closure of two maternity wards.
Grosso has positioned the bill as intended to “protect D.C. abortion rights,” and it is likely the legislation will be used to wholly deregulate abortion providers in the District. The local director of Planned Parenthood admits that the goal of the bill is “codifying abortion access.”
Maternal death statistics, however, include deaths from both childbirth and abortion, some of which are caused by negligence and a failure to meet the standard of care. In Maryland, the licenses of three abortion providers were suspended in 2013 after a string of incidents, including one death. In 2019, Planned Parenthood in Arizona, whose counterpart here is the most prominent provider, was fined $3 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit, after retaliating against a longtime employee who had noticed serious health and safety violations.
We cite these examples not because they show definitive legal liability, but because they show that there are risks associated with abortion procedures performed by District-area providers. Abortions, like any medical procedure, require regulatory oversight.
In particular, experts confirm that a large portion of the gap between white and black women is due to bias, including a refusal to acknowledge or attend to the concerns of black patients. Regulations that ensure equal treatment and lower barriers to accessing timely prenatal care, as well as treatment for pregnancy-related hypertension, diabetes, and depression, would go a long way towards improving the reproductive health outcomes of DC women. Likewise, basic sanitation, medication administration, and staffing requirements should not be left to the discretion of a reproductive health care provider.
This bill is dangerous not because it removes any specific regulations, but because its overly broad language ties our hands. This law may ultimately provide a legal defense for rogue doctors. Worse, some human trafficking advocates are privately concerned that the District’s ability to identify abuse will be diminished as a result. As with medical regulations, health practitioners could use this law to circumvent mandatory reporting laws, removing important protections for vulnerable individuals.
Grosso, who introduced this law, stands to benefit from it. It burnishes his pro-choice credentials while doing nothing to increase access to abortion or address shocking disparities in maternal health outcomes. Unsurprisingly, he is a former board member of Planned Parenthood in D.C., which has a strong interest in legislation that gives them free rein to make decisions based on the health of their bottom line rather than the health of their patients.
Grosso and Planned Parenthood will benefit from this legislation. Pregnant patients in D.C. will not.
G. Kevin Donovan is director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics and a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. Xavier Bisits is a Ward One resident and member of Democrats for Life of America. In no way is this article related to, informed by, or endorsed by his employer.
