HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 4233        FILED ON: 3/20/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3911

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Nine

_______________

An Act relative to pregnancy termination..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Chapter 112 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 12N the following section:-

Section 12N ½. After pregnancy termination, family planning and planned parenting clinics that administer such termination procedures must provide at least 2 types of pregnancy testing.  To confirm the pregnancy of a patient has been successfully terminated 1 clinical test must be a blood test.

In the event that a patient has not been administered 2 types of pregnancy tests including a blood test and subsequently is found to still be pregnant, the patient need not be required to return to the original family planning or planned parenting firm in which the termination procedures were performed.  In these cases, the patient may seek medical care at another facility of their choice or for emergency care.

The department of public health shall be notified of such cases where a patient’s abortion procedure has led to hospitalization and is the result of serious medical trauma or injury caused by such procedures.  The department compiles appropriate statistics relative to the operation and regulation of pregnancy termination services within the commonwealth.