A bill that would require a physician to be in the room during a chemical abortion was endorsed by a state House committee Thursday and likely will go to the House floor early next week.
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House Bill 1076, sponsored by Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, passed through the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on a voice vote after a short discussion. Fourteen of the committee's 20 members were co-sponsors of the bill, which seeks to prevent telemedicine abortions -- sometimes called webcam abortions -- from happening in Arkansas.
Telemedicine abortions currently are not available in Arkansas.
"This is a bill that no matter what side of the abortion debate you are on, you can vote yes on this bill," Mayberry told the committee. "The argument has always been to keep it legal and keep it safe. This keeps chemical abortion legal. It does not change the status quo in Arkansas. This bill also keeps the procedure safer because it guarantees the woman that a doctor is going to be engaged in her care and not in another state."
A companion bill filed in the Senate by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, Senate Bill 53, has been assigned to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee agenda.
In addition to requiring a physician be in the room during the procedure, the bills require that the doctors make "every reasonable effort" to see the women between 12 and 18 days after the procedure for a follow-up examination.
The measure is the first bill by abortion opponents filed during the 90th General Assembly, two years after the Arkansas Legislature passed two of the strictest abortion bans in the country, one prohibiting most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the other barring most abortions after 12 weeks.
The 12-week ban is currently being challenged in federal appeals court.
Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke against the House bill at Thursday's hearing, along with Ashley Wright from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
"We believe that it is not in the best interest of the health and safety of patients for lawmakers to instruct doctors in the practice of medicine, to prescribe which procedures already approved by the relevant medical, professional and government regulatory and licensing agencies, should be performed on a patient, how and under what circumstances," Sklar said.
Wright said lawmakers shouldn't be placing further obstacles in the path of women who want abortions.
"Medication abortion is only available in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. The vast majority of counties in Arkansas lack an abortion provider. And many women have limited access to private transportation or work and child care responsibilities make it difficult to travel long distances and take time off from work."
Mayberry said she did not believe banning the practice before it is used in Arkansas would limit medical care to rural residents.
A section on 01/30/2015