Report Details Political Interference in Health Care, Calls for Change

[eridani]

http://go.nationalpartnership.org/site/News2?abbr=daily4_&page=NewsArticle&id=48958&security=1521&news_iv_ctrl=-1

The report notes that states have passed a "record number of abortion restrictions" in recent years, which "interfer[e] in the relationship between women and their health care providers and inhibi[t] women's ability to make personal medical decisions." According to the report, "These laws are not evidence-based, and they disregard both patients' needs and health care providers' professional judgment and ethical obligations."

The report outlines several types of these restrictions, such as laws "requiring abortion providers to give patients misinformation about health risks; mandating that providers perform ultrasounds and describe and display the images; forcing providers to delay time-sensitive care; and banning the use of the prevailing evidence-based regimen for medication abortion and the provision of medication abortion via telemedicine." Additional abortion restrictions that "intrude in the exam room and undermine women's health care" include admitting privileges requirements and requirements that abortion clinics meet medically unnecessary ambulatory surgical center standards.

The report assesses each of these types of laws. For example, in terms of medical misinformation laws, the report found that 12 states have laws requiring providers to recite medically unproven claims that a fetus can feel pain; nine states require that women hear claims focusing on negative emotional reactions to abortion; four states have laws requiring incorrect statements about how abortion could affect fertility; five states have laws requiring false claims about links between abortion and breast cancer; and two states require medically unfounded claims that medication abortion can be reversed.