Boise, Idaho, Jul 18, 2018 / 15:15 pm
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Tuesday opposing a new Idaho law that requires abortion providers to report abortion-related medical complications to state authorities.
The Abortion Complications Reporting Act went into effect July 1. It mandates that abortion providers to report complications that occur during or after an abortion procedure. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is unconstitutional and requires "invasive reporting that has nothing to do with protecting patient health care."
The act specifies 37 potential abortion complications that clinics must report to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. These include cervical perforation, hemorrhages, and endometritis, as well as any psychological or emotion conditions the patient discloses after the procedure, such as depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts.
Patient identity remains confidential in the reporting process, but the physician must be identified. Other information, such as the gestational age of the unborn baby, and the mother's age, race, and number of previous abortions must also be included, according to the law.
Planned Parenthood, who filed the suit in Idaho's U.S. District Court on July 17, stated that the law "violates constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection by arbitrarily singling out one particular medical procedure" and puts "patient and provider privacy at risk."
"Previous laws targeting abortion rights have been struck down in Idaho and other states, with some courts saying there isn't enough information about alleged complications of abortions to justify the laws," reports the Associated Press.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research and policy organization founded by Planned Parenthood, 27 states require abortion providers to report post-abortion complications.
The text of the legislation cites the Supreme Court decisions Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey and Akron v. Akron Ctr. for Reproductive Health, asserting the state's "legitimate interest" in protecting women's health from "the outset of pregnancy," and its "legitimate concern with the health of women who undergo abortions."
The stated aim of the law is to gather "essential" information to enable scientific studies and research on the safety of abortion.