HB 64, a follow-up to last year’s abortion complications reporting bill, attempts to clarify how medical practitioners report suspected complications arising from abortion that will then be compiled by the Department of Health & Welfare into an annual report that will be provided to the Idaho Legislature. Despite the limited updates, the bill continues to require hospitals, medical facilities and independent medical practitioners to report “complications” of medical conditions that have no link to abortion, like breast cancer, or medically broad terms like heavy bleeding and fever. The reporting requirement doesn’t exist for any other medical condition – a clear indication that this is a political stunt to target constitutionally protected abortion care in the United States, which has been deemed extremely safe by numerous national medical and scientific groups, and rarely involves serious complications.
