Relating to abortion information and data, including a public dashboard and public awareness measures, and providing civil penalties

This bill relates to abortion information and data including a public dashboard and public awareness measures. The bill includes the findings and intent of the general assembly relating to abortion reporting. Under the bill, a physician who performs an abortion shall file with the department of public health (DPH) a report that includes specified information relating to the abortion. on the first day of the subsequent month. A hospital, medical facility, or health care provider who provides care to a woman who reports any complication, requires medical treatment, or suffers death that the hospital, medical facility, or health care provider has reason to believe is a primary, secondary, or tertiary result of an abortion, shall file a written report with DPH. The report shall be completed and signed by the hospital, medical facility, or health care provider who attended the woman and shall be transmitted to DPH within days of the death of the woman or of discharge of the woman reporting or being treated for complications. The bill prescribes the information to be included in the report. The bill requires DPH to assign a code to any health care provider, hospital, or medical facility that may be required to report information or that may be identified under the bill. An application procedure shall not be required for assignment of a code to a health care provider, hospital, or medical facility. A health care provider, hospital, or medical facility shall assign a report tracking number to each report which enables the health care provider, hospital, or medical facility to access the woman’s medical information without identifying the woman.29A (termination of pregnancy reporting —— legislative intent). DPH shall develop a public dashboard to inform the public on a monthly basis of statewide aggregate data compiled based on the information included in reports submitted by health care providers, hospitals, and medical facilities under the bill. The dashboard shall have the capacity to be updated on a weekly basis. The dashboard shall provide statewide aggregate data relating to the number of abortions performed during the prior month, a running total of the number of abortions performed to date in the current calendar year, the type of procedure used to perform the abortion, the gestational age or probable gestational age of the unborn child in weeks, the age of the woman, and the race and ethnicity of the woman, and the number and type of complications resulting from the abortions performed during the prior month. The information collected and reported and the data compiled for the dashboard under the bill shall comply with the limitations and confidentiality requirements established pursuant to existing termination of pregnancy reporting requirements. The data on the dashboard shall be available in a downloadable format and displayed as statewide aggregate data for the current calendar year only. However, the dashboard shall have the capacity to allow the public to view the data for any previous year for which such data is available, delineated by month. The total number of abortions reported to date shall be renewed each calendar year, annually, on January 1. on February 2, 2022. DPH is required to summarize aggregate data from the required reports and submit the data to the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) for inclusion in the annual vital statics report. Beginning January 31, 2023, and annually thereafter, DPH shall provide to the governor and to the senate and house of representatives human resources standing committees of a report of each information metric required to be reported by physicians under the bill by county and month for the preceding calendar year and a statistical report based on reported abortion complications for the preceding calendar year.1. The public service announcements shall begin no later than five days following the date on which the number of abortions reaches the threshold and shall continue until the completion of a subsequent calendar month in which the number of reported abortions is less than 200 and the completion of any two-week period in which the number of reported abortions is less than 100. A health care provider who fails to report the information required under the bill in a timely manner is subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second violation, $4,000 for a third violation, $10,000 for a fourth violation, and $20,000 for a fifth violation and for each subsequent violation. If a health care provider becomes aware of misreported information, the health care provider shall submit the corrected information and shall not be subject to a civil penalty if the error was not intentional or reckless. A physician who knowingly or intentionally fails to report the information required under the bill, to maintain any required records, or to report the information required at the times required under the bill, is guilty of unprofessional conduct and is subject to licensee discipline which may include license suspension or revocation and a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000. A health care provider who knowingly or intentionally fails to report the information required under the bill, to maintain any required records, or to report the information required at the times required under the bill is guilty of unprofessional conduct and is subject to licensee discipline in accordance with the licensing discipline provisions of the appropriate licensing board.29A to eliminate the reporting metric of the maternal health services region of DPH as designated as of July 1, 1997, in which the patient resides and also provides that the termination of pregnancy reporting information collected by DPH shall be shared with the CDC and may be shared with other federal public health officials to secure federal funding or to conduct public health research. The bill provides that the bill shall not be construed as creating or recognizing a right to an abortion and that it is not the intent of the bill to make lawful an abortion that is currently unlawful.