Texas' proposed revisions to a packet that abortion providers must give to a woman seeking abortion care fail to address medical experts' concerns about medically inaccurate information and add additional misinformation, the Texas Tribune reports.
Background
Under an antiabortion-rights law (HB 15), Texas since 2003 has mandated that a woman receive the packet before a medical professional provides abortion care.
Under the law, state officials are supposed to work with medical professionals to ensure the information is "objective," "nonjudgmental" and accurate. However, according to the Tribune, medical professionals have criticized the booklet for its inclusion of medical inaccuracies. For instance, medical professionals have flagged the packet's medically unfounded claims that abortion care is linked to increased risk of infertility and breast cancer. Further, according to researchers at Rutgers University, more than 30 percent of details relating to embryonic and fetal development in the original booklet were inaccurate.
In the previous legislative session, state Reps. Donna Howard (D) and Jessica Farrar (D) proposed legislation aimed at addressing the booklet's inaccuracies, neither of which advanced out of committee. One bill (HB 708) would have required information in the booklet to be supported by medically accurate, objective information, and reviewed by NIH or an affiliated organization. The other bill (HB 1210) would have given providers discretion not to distribute the booklet if they found that doing so was "inconsistent with accepted, evidence-based medical practices and ethical standards."
On June 28, Texas officials formally proposed a new version of the booklet, which they claimed to have developed with input from medical organizations. According to the Tribune, the latest version is open for public comment until Friday. The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the state Health and Human Services Commission had received over 5,000 comments as of Tuesday. Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for DSHS, said the state will consider comments before publishing the final version.
State rejects experts' recommendations
According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the latest version of the booklet did not incorporate any recommendations made by the group. For instance, ACOG had suggested that the state remove the medically unfounded claims that abortion care increases breast cancer risk and that a woman who receives abortion care has a greater likelihood of depression and suicide.
Separately, Cynthia Daniels of the Rutgers' Informed Consent Project said the proposed revision includes the same rate of inaccurate information about fetal and embryonic development as the original version. She also noted that state officials removed some of the accurate statements included in the original booklet.
In addition, according to the Tribune, the proposed update highlights the scientifically unfounded claim that a fetus experiences pain at 20 weeks.
Moss Hampton, chair of the Texas ACOG chapter, said the proposed revision overstates the infertility and mortality risks related to abortion care while minimizing the risks associated with pregnancy. "It is not fair to the patient," he said, adding, "It gives them a false impression."
Separately, Alexa Garcia-Ditta, communications and policy initiatives director at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, said the revised booklet "is not going to do anything to help inform someone's decision." She said, "If anything, it's going to shame a patient seeking abortion care and introduce unnecessary and unsupported claims that are ultimately designed to coerce someone" (Pattani, Texas Tribune, 7/27).
