Don’t restrict info on women’s health

Anyone seeking any sort of health care guidance and medical service should receive accurate and all-inclusive information in a confidential setting. That’s what we expect, and what our laws regulating health care settings demand.

There should be no exception for reproductive health care. And that’s why state lawmakers must stand behind Senate Bill 501, which would require faith-based pregnancy counseling centers to provide plain-spoken information to clients or patients about the availability of abortion and birth control in Hawaii.

The proposed regulation comes in the wake of years of complaints from groups such as Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii. In written testimony, the nonprofit said such centers are offering “biased, misleading, and even false pregnancy and health care information and denying women needed referrals for reproductive health services, and all the while failing to disclose that they are not actually licensed health care providers.”

In some cases, critics say so-called “pregnancy crisis centers,” which often offer free pregnancy tests and other services, have defrauded vulnerable women who mistake them for real medical clinics. Operators counter that constitutional rights to free speech and freedom to exercise religion protect them from being forced to mention health care options their faith objects to, such as abortion or birth control.

SB 501 would require the at least five pregnancy centers across the state affiliated with pro-life churches and religious groups to either post an informational notice in waiting rooms or distribute it during check-in. In the interest of sufficiently informing women sorting out the time-sensitive and often stressful matter of pregnancy, centers should do both.

The notice would read: “This clinic does not provide abortion services or abortion referrals. Only ultrasounds performed by qualified health care professionals and read by licensed clinicians should be considered medically accurate. Hawaii has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services including all FDA-approved methods of contraception, prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women. To apply for medical insurance coverage that will cover the full range of family planning and prenatal care services, apply online at mybenefits.hawaii.gov.”

The proposal would also hold the centers to the standard industry practice of shielding personal health information as confidential unless obtaining written authorization from the client or patient. Centers that fail to comply with the law would be fined $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses.

The bill is similar to a law recently adopted in California, which is being challenged by religious organizations, and is now slated for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In October, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the California law does not discriminate against or infringe upon 1st Amendment rights. In a 3-0 ruling, one judge wrote that the state has a legitimate interest in “ensuring that its citizens have access to and adequate information about constitutionally protected medical services like abortion”; and the law does not “encourage, suggest or imply that women should use these state-funded services.”

Several faith-based groups are asking Hawaii lawmakers to put SB 501 on hold while the California law is weighed in the courts.

In written testimony, Derald Skinner, Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor’s pastor and board president of A Place For Women center in Waipio, said: “Our desire is not to fight with our … state government, but rather to change the hearts to choose love and life for the unborn.” Skinner and others say the bill is not needed. They’re wrong about that. A law — complete with enforcement — is overdue and the Legislature should push to put in place regulation.

Each year, several thousand women in Hawaii contend with unintended pregnancy, which can carry enormous social and economic costs to individuals, families and the state. While faith-based centers are to be commended for offering heartfelt attention to pregnant women, they must be upfront about the scope of guidance and medical care they can legally provide. And while they need not utter a word about state-funded services they object to, they should disclose that information, too.