Planned Parenthood is mounting a campaign to combat state laws in Tennessee, Michigan, and Pennsylvania designed to protect the health of women.
At issue are controversial laws requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, which require providers to meet certain medical and professional standards.
Denise Burke, Vice President of Legal Affairs for Americans United for Life, pointed to evidence that suggests, “Women are receiving substandard care.”
“It is important to make sure that women receive safe, competent care on abortions,” she said.
Burke noted that 12 states require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. (Tennessee is set to become the 13th.) Twenty-eight states have “comprehensive regulations.”
The Tennessee law requiring abortion physicians to obtain “admitting privileges at a licensed hospital” in the county where the abortion is performed, or a county adjacent to it, will take effect July 1. The abortion doctor must let the patient know which hospital has granted privileges and where she can go if complications arise.
Planned Parenthood opposes the measure.
Senator Mae Beavers (R., Mt. Juliet), who introduced the law into the Tennessee state Senate, told the Free Beacon she supported the bill because “if a woman has an abortion at those clinics and has complications, she deserves to be treated by a doctor with hospital privileges.”
“We had reports of women dying from taking the abortion pill,” she said.
Mary Spaulding Balch, State Legislation Director for National Right to Life, agreed.
In a statement to the Free Beacon, she said admitting privilege laws aim “to ensure that a woman who suffers complications from an abortion is not abandoned by the one who performed the abortion.”
“Complications of abortion are best managed by the abortion provider who performed the abortion,” she said in the statement.
If a woman faces medical problems during an abortion, a clinic doctor who has the ability to practice in a hospital nearby can take her there to treat her.
“Requiring that abortion providers have admitting privileges at local hospitals ensures” that women get the care they need, Bach said.
At least 46 states require some abortion reporting, and 23 states have specific reporting on complications. The Tennessee bill originally required specific reporting on all abortions, including those with complications, but an amendment struck out this provision.
“This is critical information that we all need to ensure women’s health and safety,” Burke said.
Forty-three states, along with the District of Columbia, require abortion doctors to have medical licenses.
While state abortion clinic restrictions followed Planned Parenthood’s own “internal treatment protocols,” the family planning organization still opposed the bills, Burke said. “They’re desperate to oppose state oversight, any outside oversight policing their actions.”
Planned Parenthood declined requests for comment.
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