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Thursday, September 04, 2008
Ind. Law - More on: "Allen County bill may effectively limit abortion"
Updating this ILB entry from yesterday, Sept. 3, the Evansville Courier & Press today editorializes:
The abortion ordinance issue that erupted in Vanderburgh County last month is about to be tested in Fort Wayne, Ind., but with three significant differences.Recall that the ordinance requiring doctors who perform abortions to have nearby hospital admitting privileges was passed by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners with practically no public notice.
That's one difference.
According to news reports from Fort Wayne, the public there knows that it is coming. * * *
The second difference goes to the scope of the ordinance.
The Vanderburgh County ordinance, passed unanimously, went right at abortion, requiring that a physician may not perform an abortion in Vanderburgh County unless he has admitting privileges at a hospital in Vanderburgh or an adjacent county.
Also, it requires that the physician notify the patient of the hospital's location, where the patient may receive follow-up care if complications occur. * * *
We wondered at the time, in an Aug. 21 editorial, that if the issue was truly patient safety — as the commissioners said — and not restricting abortions, then why did it not include other outpatient procedures performed in Vanderburgh County?
And, indeed, according to the Journal Gazette, the Allen County ordinance would require all surgeons and doctors who provide outpatient invasive procedures to have ties to a local hospital. It would apply to other medical procedures.
The third difference is between the two communities involved. In fact, Vanderburgh County has no abortion clinic, no place for visiting physicians to perform abortions. Hence, the Vanderburgh ordinance stands more as a bar against a clinic ever opening here.
On the other hand, Fort Wayne does have a clinic operated by the Fort Wayne Women's Health Organization. According to the story, abortions at the clinic are performed by a physician based in South Bend.
That means that if the ordinance is passed, it could put the future of the Fort Wayne clinic in doubt, and create a headache for physicians coming there to perform other procedures at outpatient clinics.
Also, it adds new meaning to big hospital monopolies if visiting physicians — whether they perform abortions or plastic surgery — must get the permission of hospitals to do procedures at medical clinics.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 4, 2008 08:39 AM
Posted to Indiana Law