House OKs bill to enforce abortion-clinic rules

New regulations that would make Arkansas abortion clinics subject to immediate shutdown for health and safety violations cleared the House in quick order Monday.

There was no debate over House Bill 1428, after its sponsor, state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs, presented it to the chamber. The legislation passed by a vote of 77-8 and now goes to the Senate.

A bill to ban sex-selective abortions also was on the docket to be considered Monday, but the chamber skipped over it.

Lundstrum said the intent of HB1428 is to require abortion clinics to keep up with safe standards. Abortion-rights advocates have said they are already in compliance with those standards.

The proposal is one of several pieces of legislation the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas says is aimed at limiting women's access to safe, legal abortions before viability. The group has already promised a lawsuit challenging one recently passed abortion restriction and has threatened more.

"This is a bill that's time has come, if we're concerned about a woman's health," Lundstrum said.

The proposal would require the Department of Health to immediately suspend the license of a clinic for legal or code violations that "pose an imminent threat to the health, welfare or safety of a patient." It also would make annual inspections statutory, as well as a $500 fee to be paid by the clinic.

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The Department of Health already conducts annual inspections of abortion clinics and charges the $500 fee, said department spokesman Meg Mirivel. She said the department would refer serious violations to the Board of Health, which would consider whether to suspend or revoke the license while the clinic would be able to remain in operation.

"It's mostly theoretical for how this would change much because it's very rare for that to happen," Mirivel said, referring to the closure of health facilities.

Family Council President Jerry Cox said his organization helped craft the proposal, which was intended to "clean up" language around statutory authority the department already has.

"We just felt like we need to make it clear that if the violation rose to a certain level, [the clinic] could be closed," Cox said.

The Health Department already checks for records that would be required under Lundstrum's proposal, according to Mirivel, including medical records as well as signatures for informed consent and parental consent.

A lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains told lawmakers in a House committee last week that the organization -- which operates two of the state's three abortion clinics -- already complies with all state rules and regulations, and that all of its abortions are performed by licensed physicians, as would be required under Lundstrum's bill.

"We always employ and only employ licensed physicians," Ashley Wright, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains, said Monday. "This is unfairly targeted only to abortion facilities."

Lundstrum's bill is one of several proposals to enact new limits on abortions in Arkansas. Last month, the Legislature passed and Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a measure prohibiting the most common method used for second-trimester abortions, except to prevent a serious health risk to the mother.

That law, now Act 45, has prompted the threat of a legal challenge from the ACLU.

Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, said his legislation to ban sex-selective abortions, House Bill 1434, was held for a vote today to "balance the calendar." Monday's calendar was filled with legislation that advanced through committees on Thursday and Friday, but no House standing committees met Monday.

Both Collins' and Lundstrum's bills were advanced out of the same House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee meeting last week without any lawmakers voicing opposition.

Also Monday, the Senate passed House Bill 1185, which would allow a death certificate to be issued for a fetus that dies after 12 weeks of gestation, if the parents want one. The legislation, by Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, passed by a vote of 29-0 and was sent to the governor.

Legislation in the chamber by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, would make it a felony to kill a baby born as the result of a failed abortion. That bill has yet to be considered in committee.

There were 3,771 abortions performed in Arkansas in 2015, according to the Department of Health.

A Section on 02/14/2017