Texas Admitting Privileges Law (HB 57)

HB 57 would have required that physicians have admitting privileges at a hospital that is located no more than 30 miles from where the abortion was performed and that provides OB-GYN services.

The bill also would have required physicians to provide pregnant woman with a telephone number by which a physician or health-care professional employed by the abortion provider facility can be reached 24 hours a day for assistance with complications.

A violation of the law would have been a Class A misdemeanor.

STATUS

This bill was introduced during the first special legislative session called by Gov. Rick Perry in 2013. It failed to pass, but Texas’ Omnibus Abortion bill (HB 2), which was enacted and signed into law during the second special legislative session, contains a nearly identical admitting privileges provision.

Another bill with the same number (HB 57) was introduced by Rep. Dawnna Dukes during the second special legislative session. That bill states that any abortion restriction enacted after June 1, 2013 will not take effect unless, not later than September 1, 2014, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission finds, and publishes in the Texas Register, that the state has maximized funding for the Texas Women’s Health Program with federal funds. It failed to pass.

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