Senate gets bill toughening regulations for abortion clinics

With the support of Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration, a Senate committee passed a bill Thursday to toughen regulatory standards for Kentucky abortion clinics, a controversial move that in other states has forced clinics to close. A similar Texas law was challenged this week before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senate Bill 212 would require abortion clinics to obtain a state certificate of need, as hospitals do, and a state license as an ambulatory surgical center, which could make it necessary for them to upgrade their facilities. Doctors at the clinics would have to secure admitting privileges at a hospital within 50 miles, or the clinics would face a $1,000 daily penalty.

The Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection voted 10-1 to send the bill to the full Senate. The sole opponent was Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, who called the bill an unconstitutional attempt to thwart women’s reproductive rights.

Steven Davis, chief of staff at the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the bill was meant solely to protect women.

“There are serious ramifications to performing surgical procedures in these facilities without adequate safeguards,” Davis told the committee. “No one is here trying to eliminate the ability of any woman to go into a facility and seek these procedures. In fact, what we are trying to do here is make certain these procedures are done in a safe environment.”

But Derek Selznick, an abortion-rights lobbyist with the ACLU of Kentucky, challenged that argument in his testimony against the bill. The standards called for in the bill, and in similar measures in other states, are not recommended by the American Medical Association or the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Selznick said.

As a practical matter, he said, the tougher standards raise costs for abortion clinics. They also leave clinics vulnerable to political pressure that anti-abortion forces bring against state licensing agencies and hospitals that give admitting privileges.

“This bill is not written to protect women’s health,” Selznick said. “This legislation is, I believe, another attempt to place another roadblock between Kentucky women and their right to receive any lawful medical procedure they choose. It is, I believe, another attempt for lawmakers to place themselves between health care providers and their patients.”

As with some other abortion measures during the 2016 legislative session, no women spoke Thursday. All 14 members of the veterans committee are men, as were the witnesses speaking for and against the bill. Clark, the only senator to oppose the bill, said it should have been assigned to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee because it deals with health care, not the military.

There are two abortion clinics in Kentucky, in Louisville and Lexington, operated by EMW Women’s Surgical Center. The clinic’s main office in Louisville did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.

In recent years, roughly two dozen states have passed laws requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical center licensing standards, which can cover the size of interior rooms and hallways and the number of parking spaces, as well as the scope of indirectly related medical resources that must be available.

In Texas, where such a law was passed in 2013, the number of abortion clinics dropped from more than 40 to 18, with more closings expected. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to Texas’ law. Clinics sued the state, alleging the law was an “undue burden” on women that does not serve the state’s legitimate interest in promoting health. The high court is expected to rule this year.

For the Kentucky legislature, this session has seen a burst of activity on the controversial subject of abortion after a long impasse between the two chambers.

Anti-abortion lawmakers have a staunch ally in Bevin, the new Republican governor, who filed a lawsuit Thursday to close the abortion clinic in Lexington, saying it was unlicensed and unsanitary. Bevin filed a similar lawsuit this year against Planned Parenthood of Louisville, which had briefly offered abortion services.

Anti-abortion lawmakers control the Republican-led Senate. They are encouraged by political movement in the House, where Democrats — barely clinging to a majority — seem willing this election year to give abortion bills some consideration, although House Health and Welfare chairman Tom Burch, D-Louisville, has four such bills bottled up in his committee. One anti-abortion House bill is co-sponsored by 56 of the House’s 96 members, including a handful of Democrats.

The abortion bills include:

▪  Senate Bill 4, requiring women to get “informed consent” counseling from a medical professional within 24 hours before an abortion, either in person or over a live video feed. SB 4 passed the Senate 32-5 and the House 92-3. Bevin signed it into law Feb. 4.

▪  SB 7, prohibiting any public funds for Planned Parenthood or other groups that perform abortions. The Senate passed it 33-5; it’s assigned to the House budget committee.

▪  SB 152, requiring women seeking an abortion to first to undergo an ultrasound, with a doctor describing the image to them. The Senate passed it 32-4; it’s assigned to the House Health and Welfare Committee.

▪  House Bill 61, essentially the same as SB 7, is assigned to the House Health and Welfare Committee.

▪  HB 257, would prohibit abortions 20 weeks or later after fertilization; ban abortion methods that result in dismemberment, crushing or vivisection of the fetus; and regulate the disposal of the remains. It is assigned to the House Health and Welfare Committee.

▪  HB 492, essentially the same as SB 212, the certificate of need requirement, is assigned to the House Health and Welfare Committee.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Senate gets bill toughening regulations for abortion clinics."