Background: House Bill 42 would require clinics that provide surgical abortions to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers and that doctors performing abortions there have admitting privileges at a hospital not more than 10 miles away.
Our position: The ACLU of Wyoming opposes House Bil 42. Patient care isn’t the purpose of House Bill 42. House Bill 42 is meant to close clinics down by forcing doctors to comply with regulations they shouldn’t need to meet.
Ambulatory surgical centers are health care facilities where surgical procedures that typically don’t require an overnight stay are performed. But abortion is a far safer procedure than those performed at most surgical centers, in part because abortion does not require an incision. Leading medical authorities like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association have affirmed abortion is one of the safest medical procedures with low complication rates.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, that medically unnecessary restrictions on doctors and clinics, like those House Bill 42, do not improve the health and safety of patients, are unconstitutional and should not be enforced.
Additionally, hospital admitting privileges are unnecessary. There is no medical basis to require abortion providers to have local hospital admitting privileges, according to the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Admitting privileges do not protect patients’ safety. Providers already have plans in case of emergencies, which are extremely rate. Moreover, admitting privileges are simply a business arrangement between a local hospital and a physician and single out abortion providers. Other doctors do not have to meet these requirements.
