Wyoming Bill Regarding Abortion Reporting (HB 121)

HB 121 would establish additional requirements for abortion reporting.

Current law requires the state office of vital records to be maintain an abortion reporting form for physicians to fill out for each procedure.

Under this bill, a physician who fails to submit a report by the end of thirty days following the due date established by the office of vital records services would be subject to a late fee of $1,000 for each additional thirty day period or portion of a thirty day period the report is overdue.

The report should not include the patient’s name, address, social security number, driver’s license number, or any other information that may identify the patient. Instead, the report should include a unique medical record identifying number that will enable the record to be matched to the patient’s medical records.

Intentional or reckless failure by any physician to conform to any requirement of this provision, other than filing a late report, or intentional or reckless failure to submit a complete report would be unprofessional conduct.

Intentional or reckless falsification of a report would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year imprisonment and/or a fine up to $1,000.

The office of vital records would be required to hold compilations of the information submitted on the  abortion reporting forms in strict confidence and should only be made available to the attorney general or district attorney.

The office of vital records would be required to issue a public report, no later than June 30, providing statistics for the previous calendar year compiled from all the reports covered that year.

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