This week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives stood up for patient privacy and women’s rights by voting down House Bill 471 three separate times. HB 471 would have mandated that doctors collect and report information to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on patients who undergo abortions. If it ended up in the wrong hands, the information would expose highly private and sensitive information.
This bill was resoundingly shot down by members on both sides of the aisle. Democrats worked across the aisle with fiscally conservative members who are concerned about privacy rights – this was an important part of defeating the bill. This bipartisan outcome represents a major victory against efforts to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to collect data that is not needed to address a medical problem that doesn’t exist.
Supporters of HB 471 assumed that data held by the state is secure. Yet, in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services database was breached when a hospital patient accessed and posted medical records for 15,000 patients on the internet. HB 471 would have resulted in the state collecting, and storing, highly personal identification, including patient age, estimated gestational age, use of contraception and method of termination, plus doctor identification and the providing facility.
There were plenty of concerns voiced about the state possessing such data but no reasons for the medical need to collect it.
The fact is much riskier procedures are performed yet this level of detailed data is not collected (i.e. cardiac surgery, back surgery, etc.). The intent of this bill was clearly to limit a woman’s access to reproductive health care at the risk of returning us to the days depicted in The Cider House Rules. Limiting access to reproductive health care also sets women up for a lifetime of dependence on the system, keeps women in relationships that are unhealthy or dangerous, or impacts their ability to achieve their fullest career potential.
Putting aside privacy, HB 471 would have imposed a stiff cost to the state to collect, store and analyze the data. As a member of the Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee in the state Legislature, I hear many pressing and serious public health issues that the state can’t afford to address.
For example, SB 247, which passed the House this week, includes a homeowner and landlord loan program to abate lead paint in older homes. The state can’t afford to implement the grant program originally proposed in the bill so it was replaced with a loan program. This is a serious problem because our children are experiencing permanent brain damage from exposure to lead. Not only does this represent an emotional cost to the affected families but also a short and long-term financial burden to the system to address developmental delays and other health problems resulting from a problem that could be avoided.
The state of New Hampshire also has a raging opioid crisis with the second highest rate of overdose deaths in the country. If Medicaid expansion does not pass, community health care centers like Seacoast Community Health will be forced to shut their doors due to lack of funding. Centers like this are on the front line in the opioid crisis. The hundreds of thousands proposed to be spent for HB 471 – including over $160,000 in the first year – could provide funding to these mental health facilities and provide support to physicians who are seeing opioid-addicted patients.
While this is a significant win, like a game of Whack-a-Mole, several new bills have popped up. Many problematic bills have been filed this session that need to be fought to protect women’s privacy and reproductive rights. Now, more than ever, Granite Staters need to know what their elected officials are proposing and how they are voting. Defeating HB 471 was a big win for women’s rights. With the participation of Granite Staters, we can have more wins this session.
(Rep. Mindi Messmer of Rye serves Rockingham District 24 in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and is a congressional candidate in the 1st District.)