House passes anti-chemical abortion bill on party-line vote

The House has voted 55-14, in a straight party-line vote, to pass HB 154 , controversial anti-abortion legislation that adds new restrictions around abortions performed by medication, rather than by surgery. The bill now moves to the Senate side. All the “no” votes came from the House’s minority Democrats; all the “yes” votes came from majority Republicans.

Backers of the bill said it would promote women’s safety by requiring that anyone getting a prescription for RU-486, the abortion-inducing drug, be directly supervised by a doctor, rather than getting what the bill’s proponents called a “web-cam abortion.” From the debate:

“When a doctor’s not present, there’s a lot of opportunities for issues to arise,” Rep. Heather Scott , R-Blanchard, told the House. “Chemical abortions allow a woman to stay home and take the pill and then deal with the bleeding and sometimes a small baby, a tiny baby in their toilet, from several examples of witnesses. There are 18 states now that have banned webcam abortions and they require a physical presence of a doctor. This is not banning abortions, it’s just banning abortions done in the privacy of your own home without a doctor to deal with complications.”

Rep. Melissa Wintrow , D-Boise, countered, “HB 154 unfairly singles out a safe and legal medication from use, despite its proven safety. … Without a doubt this bill does nothing to enhance safety.” She said, “It works to restrict access to safe and legal procedure.” Rep. Ilana Rubel , D-Boise, said the medication is commonly used at very early stages of pregnancy; if that’s prevented and women have to travel great distances to get abortions, she said, “What we’re really doing is we’re ensuring that those procodures are going to happen at a later stage.”

Rep. Kathy Sims , R-Coeur d’Alene, said as a mother, the idea of an abortion performed “over a webcam is absolutely unconscionable, so I’m in total support of HB 154.” Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, said, “RU-486 essentially starves the baby of its nutrients. … If we in this body can do anything to protect life, to protect innocent life, by all means.”

Rep. Paulette Jordan , D-Plummer, said, “In my culture and tradition we wholly value life.” But she noted that another pending bill, HB 98 on telemedicine, already would ban the use of telemedicine for abortions. “HB 154 does nothing to enhance the safety of a woman,” Jordan told the House. “HB 154 unfairly and unnecessarily inserts the Legislature into the exam room and takes decisions about how to practice medicine away from highly skilled and trained physicians.”

Rep. Greg Chaney , R-Nampa, said, “As far as the scope of this bill, we all understand that there would be a reduction in abortions if chemical abortions weren’t allowed.” He said if that alone wasn’t reason to support the bill, lawmakers should “consider the health of the woman. This is a traumatic experience and it’s being offered with all the casual nature of someone soliciting IT help for their computer. Webcams are not appropriate means of delivering all services and this is one of them.”