SB 547

This bill repeals various abortion-related laws, including the prohibition on giving a woman an abortion-inducing drug unless the physician who provided the drug for the woman performs a physical exam on the woman and is physically present in the room when the drug is given to the woman. The bill also eliminates the prohibition on performing abortions by a physician that does not have admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of the location where the abortion is to be performed. This statute was previously held to be unenforceable by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in

Planned Parenthood of Wis., Inc. v. Schimel

, 806 F.3d 908 (7th Cir. 2015), which affirmed a permanent injunction granted by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The bill does not change standard informed consent requirements applicable to all medical procedures, including abortion, but removes additional requirements specific to the performance of an abortion that exceed those standard informed consent requirements. Current law requires that these additional requirements must be met in order for a woman upon whom an abortion is to be performed or induced to give voluntary and informed consent to an abortion. Except in a medical emergency, under current law, a woman’s consent to an abortion is considered informed only if, with certain exceptions, at least 24 hours before the abortion is performed or induced, the physician or an assistant has, in person, orally provided the woman with certain information and given to the woman certain written materials. The bill repeals these requirements.

Under current law, whoever intentionally performs an abortion and who is not a physician is guilty of a felony and subject to a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to three years and six months, or both. The bill eliminates that prohibition. The bill does not affect any other criminal prohibition or limitation on abortion in current law, such as the general prohibition on performing an abortion after the fetus or unborn child has reached viability, or any other homicide prohibition. The bill also does not affect a separate provision in current law that prohibits prosecution of and imposing or enforcing a fine or imprisonment against a woman who obtains an abortion or otherwise violates any abortion law with respect to her unborn child or fetus.