“Yes, women's reproductive rights have been used as a bargaining chip in the national health care debate," NARAL Pro-Choice Washington's Executive Director Lauren Simonds commented yesterday in response to this post. “But that doesn't mean progressive changes in policy aren't being debated.”
Simonds cited Washington Senate Bill 6452 as an example, which has 10 sponsors and is currently being heard by the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee. The bill would impose restrictions on limited service pregnancy centers, defined as organizations that don't offer comprehensive birth control services, abortions, abortion referrals, or prenatal care. They are often faith-based centers that offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, parenting classes, and adoption literature.
Under the bill, limited service pregnancy centers would be required to:
*Provide reproductive health information that is "medically and scientifically accurate."
*Immediately communicate that they don't provide medical care for pregnant women, abortion, referrals for abortion, or comprehensive birth control services.
*Allow clients to self-administer pregnancy tests and supply test results in writing as soon as they are known.
*Keep all health information private (unless otherwise authorized) and make a client's records available to her no later than 15 working days after receiving a request.
At yesterday's packed hearing, women testified about withheld pregnancy test results and receiving false medical information, including being informed that "AIDS gets through condoms like rice through a tennis racket", and abortion is intimately linked to breast cancer.
It seems like common sense that these centers would be held accountable for providing medically and scientifically accurate information. Not so, according to Human Life Washington, which argues on its website that the bill would induce a “gag order” on such centers, “violating the Constitution by applying Consumer Protection Act to religious non-profit organizations — thereby violating the pregnancy center's rights of freedom of faith and conscience.”
Those who are discouraged by the sacrifices of women's reproductive rights on the national health care platform have a lot to be hopeful for locally, Simonds said. This bill pushes conversation in the right direction—an honest one.
The Health and Long-Term Care Committee must vote on the bill by February 4th.