Conferees appointed for Abortion Bill

I call it the abortion bill, but House changes have broadened it quite a bit. SB 89 started as a bill to limit the availability of abortions by requiring doctors performing the procedure to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. This was done under the pretext that it was necessary to protect patient health. Taking this pretext at face value, the House expanded the legislation to require such admitting privileges for any doctor performing a “surgical procedure,” a term the legislation does not define.

Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has an article on the current status of the bill. The Speaker has appointed Scott Pelath as one of the conferees. As chairman of the Rules Committee, Pelath frequently has the task of killing bills the Speaker doesn’t like. No word on whether that is his task at the moment. In any case, the Speaker says that if the bill dies, it’s not the House’s fault — after all, the Senate can simply agree to the House’s changes. One of the problems with that is, apparently, the medical community is not terribly happy with this expansive bill that regulates any doctor’s ability to perform “surgical procedures.”

[House Minority Leader Brian] Bosma noted the original bill would have affected only a handful of doctors in the state, but the Indiana State Medical Association opposes the expansion. He said 25 percent of Hoosier physicians do not have admitting privileges because of their practice.

“So those folks who routinely don’t have to go to the hospital would have to be affiliated and that apparently caused quite a stir in the medical lobby,” he said.