Georgia Bill Regarding Admitting Privileges and Abortion-Inducing Drugs (SB 230)

SB 230 would require abortion facilities to have rules and regulations equivalent to the standards established for ambulatory surgical centers.

The bill would require a physician performing or inducing an abortion to:

• Have active admitting privileges at a hospital not further than 30 miles away and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health-care services;
• Provide the pregnant individual with contact information of the physician or facility in order to request assistance for any complications that arise or to ask health related questions; and
•  Provide the pregnant individual with contact information of the nearest hospital to the home of the pregnant individual in case of emergency.

A physician who violates this section would be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $4,000.

Drug-Induced Abortions

The bill would prohibit a person from knowingly giving, selling, dispensing, administering, providing, or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant individual for the purpose of inducing an abortion in the pregnant individual or enabling another person to induce an abortion in the pregnant individual unless:

• The person who provides the abortion-induving drug is a physician; and
• The provision, prescription, or administration of such drug satisfies the protocol tested and authorized by United States Food and Drug Administration.

The bill states that a person may provide such drugs in the “dosage amount prescribed by the clinical management guidelines defined by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Practice Bulletin as those guidelines existed on July 1, 2017.”

The bill would require a physician to first examine the pregnant individual and document in the patient’s medical record, the gestational age and intrauterine location of the pregnancy, prior to providing or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug.

The bill would require the physician to provide the pregnant individual:

• A copy of the final printed label of the abortion-inducing drug; and
• Contact information of the physician or facility in order to request assistance.

The physician would be required to schedule a follow-up visit for the patient to occur not more than 14 days after the administration or use of the drug. At the follow-up visit, the physician would:

• Confirm the pregnancy is terminated; and
• Assess the degree of bleeding.

The bill would require the physician to “make a reasonable effort” to ensure that the patient returns for the scheduled follow-up visit, and document such effort in the patient’s medical file.

If a patient experiences a serious adverse event, during or after the administration or use of the drug, the physician must report the event to the United States Food and Drug Administration through the administration’s available system for such purposes no later than the third day after the date the physician learns that the event occurred.

Failure by any physician to conform to any requirement of this law would be considered unprofessional conduct.

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