North Carolina Motorcycle Abortion Bill (SB 353)

SUMMARY

This bill contains multiple abortion restrictions: (1) health-care conscience protection; (2) prohibition of abortion coverage under health-care plans offered through a health insurance exchange; (3) sex-selective abortion ban; and (4) amendment to Women’s Right to Know Act, including a telemedicine abortion ban; (5) ambulatory surgical center requirement.

Conscience Clause

This provision permits physicians, nurses, and health-care providers who state an objection on moral, ethical, or religious grounds to refuse to participate in a medical procedure that results in an abortion. The refusal cannot be the basis of any damages or disciplinary action against the physician, nurse, or health-care provider.

Insurance Coverage

A health plan offered under the Affordable Care Act is prohibited from providing coverage for abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.

Sex-Selective Abortion Ban

Bans abortion when the sex of the fetus is a “significant factor” in seeking the abortion.

Informed Consent/Telemedicine Ban

Amends Women’s Right to Know Act to require Department of Health to make available on the State website a list of resources a woman may contact upon receiving information from the physician who performed the ultrasound that the fetus may have a disability or serious abnormality.

The bill also requires that a physician performing a surgical abortion be present during the performance of the abortion procedure, and that a physician prescribing or dispensing abortion-inducing drugs be physically present in the same room as the patient when the drug is first administered to the patient.

Codified at G.S. 90-21.83.

Ambulatory Surgical Center Requirement

The bill authorizes the Department of Health to choose which of the licensing requirements for ambulatory surgical centers should be applied to abortion clinics. The rules must protect patient privacy, provide quality assurance, and ensure that patients with complications receive the necessary medical attention, while not unduly restricting access.

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