House File 53 is a bill that requires a private office, freestanding outpatient surgical facility, hospital or other facility in which medication abortions are performed to conspicuously post a sign in a location as described in the bill relating to the effectiveness and possibility of avoiding, ceasing or even reversing the effects of a medication abortion.
A physician shall not perform or attempt to perform a medication abortion unless the physician who will perform the medication abortion, the referring physician or an agent of either physician obtains written certification from the pregnant woman – except in the case of a medical emergency.
That written certification shall make clear the woman has been informed prior to the medication abortion of all the risks commonly associated with a medication abortion and that it may be possible to reverse the effects of a medication abortion if she changes her mind.
The Department of Public Health would also be required to publish and make available on its website materials designed to inform a woman of the possibility of reversing the effects of a medication abortion if the woman changes her mind and information on and assistance with the resources that may be available to help reverse the effects of medication abortion.
The bill advanced out of its House subcommittee on Tuesday afternoon.
Daniel Sunne of The FAMiLY Leader called it an important consent bill that requires abortion providers to inform women of potentially life-saving treatment. Lives have already been saved through the use of the abortion pill reversal drug, and if this bill becomes law, many more will be saved here in Iowa.
Kim Laube of Lutheran Family Service of Iowa said women who exercise their right to choose should also have the right to be fully informed. And they should definitely know about actions they can take to reverse the procedure if they change their minds to save their baby.
Women are often afraid and just want the problem to go away during an unplanned pregnancy, Laube said. Decisions are made in haste. But, after they take that initial pill and realize what they’ve done, some have wished they could take back their decision.
Democrat State Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell spoke against the bill Republican State Representatives Anne Osmundson and Shannon Lundgren passed it out of the subcommittee.
