Michigan bills to resume tracking abortion data are scheduled to receive a hearing Wednesday morning before the Republican-led state House Health Policy Committee.
The legislation would require providers to report data like a patient's age, racial and ethnic background, and pregnancy history. The bills would also require reporting to the state when complications arise.
Genevieve Marnon is legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan. She said the bills are about patient safety.
“I think women have the right to know the risks they are taking before they make a decision, and the abortion reporting is a necessary part of that right,” Marnon said.
Michigan stopped requiring providers to report abortion data to the state last year after a law change.
Groups against having the state follow abortion data argue abortions are safe, and tracking the data would deter some people from seeking medical care.
Numbers from 2023, in the state’s final year collecting the abortion data, show 16 total immediate complications following an abortion out of over 31,000 procedures. There were 247 total subsequent complications, including 122 failed abortions, in 2023.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan Chief External Affairs officer Ashlea Phenicie said there’s little no medical value to knowing things like a patient's marital status. As far as medical data goes, she said clinics do take part in research studies.
“I think we need to think very carefully in the level of information we are collecting, the level of patient and provider privacy protections that are included in that, and who is holding and administering that data,” Phenicie said.
She shared concerns about some of the data that would be collected under the bills, like where someone lived and how they planned to pay for the abortion.
Phenicie said the bills could have a “chilling” effect on access given attempts from other states with abortion bans to stop their residents from seeking care elsewhere.
“When our patients come to use seeking medical care, they’re looking for information about their options, they’re looking for compassion, they’re not looking to be interrogated about their marital status,” Phenicie said.
Beyond that, she argued the bills would only serve to further stigmatize abortions after voters voted overwhelmingly in 2022 to protect access in Michigan.
Marnon rejected that argument, however. She acknowledged abortion access is the law of the state, saying instead of taking about abortion rights, the bills aim to protect women.
“Women should have the right to know the risks associated with that choice and choose differently if that’s what she wants,” Marnon said.
Marnon said the bills were “commonsense.” She pointed out the bills specifically ban personally identifiable information from being included in any report and set penalties for sharing private data.
Even if the bills make it out of the Michigan House of Representatives, they’re likely to die in the Democratic-controlled state Senate. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who signed the Reproductive Health Act into law, is also unlikely to support the legislation should it make it to her desk.
