Texas Bill Regarding Reporting Requirements for Abortion Complications (SB 872)

SB 872 would require a physician to submit an abortion complication report no later than the 30th day after the date the physician treats a patient for a complication that resulted or may have resulted from an abortion.

The report would need to be submitted to the vital statistics unit of the department by:

• certified mail marked as confidential; or
• electronic transmission confidentially through an encrypted format approved by the department.

The abortion complication report would need to include:

• the date of the abortion that caused or may have caused the complication;
• the type of abortion that caused or may have caused the complication;
• any type of anesthesia used during the abortion;
• the gestational age of the fetus at the time;
• the name and type of facility in which the abortion was performed;
• the date the complication was diagnosed and treated;
• the name and type of facility in which the complication was diagnosed and treated;
• a description of the complication;
• the number of previous live births of the patient; and
• the number of previous induced abortions of the patient.

The bill would require all reports to be made confidential and not be considered open records. The information may not be released or made public on subpoena or otherwise, except that release may be made:

• for statistical purposes, but only if a person, patient, or facility is not identified;
• with the consent of each person, patient, and facility identified in the information released;
• to medical personnel, appropriate state agencies, or county and district courts to enforce this chapter; or
• to appropriate state licensing boards to enforce state licensing laws.

Facility Reporting Requirements

The bill would also require a hospital or medical care facility to submit an annual report to the department that states the number of patients who in the preceding year were treated at the hospital for complications resulting from an abortion. Such reports would be required to be confidential and not open to public, with the same exceptions for release as stated above.

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