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House Bill 2 (2nd C.S.) |
House Author: Laubenberg et al. |
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Effective: See below |
Senate Sponsor: Hegar et al. |
House Bill 2 amends provisions of the Health and Safety Code and the Occupations Code relating to the regulation of abortion procedures, providers, and facilities. The bill requires a physician performing or inducing an abortion to have active admitting privileges at a hospital that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services located not further than 30 miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and to provide the pregnant woman with certain contact information for potential medical assistance needed after the abortion. The bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine not to exceed $4,000 for a physician in violation of these requirements.
House Bill 2 establishes the
Preborn Pain Act to prohibit a physician from performing or inducing or
attempting to perform or induce an abortion without determining the
post-fertilization age of the unborn child and to prohibit a person from
performing or inducing or attempting to perform or induce an abortion if it has
been determined that the probable
post-fertilization age of the unborn child is 20 or more weeks. The bill
establishes the circumstances under which these prohibitions and requirements
do not apply and the manner in which an abortion must be performed under such
circumstances. The bill provides for the protection of the identity of a woman
on whom an abortion has been performed or induced or attempted to be performed
or induced in a civil or criminal proceeding or action involving a prohibited
act under the Preborn Pain Act. The bill provides for the enforcement and
judicial interpretation of the act, consistent with federal constitutional
requirements. The bill makes it a prohibited practice for a physician or an
applicant for a license to practice medicine to perform or induce or attempt to
perform or induce an abortion in violation of the Preborn Pain Act and exempts
a violation of the act from the criminal penalties provided under the Medical
Practice Act.
House Bill 2 prohibits a person from knowingly giving, selling, dispensing, administering, providing, or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant woman for the purpose of inducing an abortion or enabling another person to induce an abortion unless the person is a physician and the provision, prescription, or administration satisfies the protocol tested and authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration outlined on the final printed label of the drug. The bill sets out provisions relating to authorized dosage amounts of an abortion-inducing drug and establishes requirements for a physician giving, selling, dispensing, administering, providing, or prescribing an abortion-inducing drug, including examination, documentation, and reporting requirements, requirements to provide certain information to the pregnant woman, and requirements for a follow-up visit with the woman. The bill establishes administrative penalties for a person who violates these prohibitions and requirements.
House Bill 2 requires the minimum standards for an abortion facility, on and after September 1, 2014, to be equivalent to the minimum standards adopted for ambulatory surgical centers and repeals a statutory provision prohibiting certain minimum standards for abortion facilities from being more stringent than Medicare certification standards. The bill requires the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child to be included in the annual report required to be submitted to the Department of State Health Services by an abortion facility on each abortion performed at the abortion facility. The bill takes effect October 29, 2013, except for the repeal of provisions related to the minimum standards required of an abortion facility, which takes effect September 1, 2014.