DHEC Moves to Terminate Choice
DHEC's plan for abortion providers would limit access and raise costs
BY KATRINA NYLUND
The General Assembly only wanted to ensure that abortion doctors were performing legal and
safe abortions but, if the Department of Health and Environmental Control has their way
abortions could become unavailable in South Carolina, at least temporarily. The Department
recently issued a second draft of the Standards for Licensing Facilities that Perform Abortions
During the First and Second Trimesters. If enacted as written, clinics in South Carolina would be
forced to close while they redesigned their facilities to comply with the regulations. When finally
able to reopen, the additional paperwork and staff would dramatically raise the cost of the
procedure.
DHEC's regulatory authority is granted through the General Assembly's "Woman's Right to
Know Act." The act was passed after a Charleston clinic was shutdown for illegal and unethical
practices. The intent of the General Assembly was to ensure abortion providers met health and
safety standards. Even the proposed regulations declare their intentions to "ensure professional
and safe care for patients," but there is little to indicate that safety and professional responsibility
are their true aims.
The regulations are replete with requirements that place an undue burden on clinics and are
medically unnecessary. "It appears as though DHEC looked at the standards employed by the
best run medical clinics and deliberately drafted new ones intended to put them out of business,"
said Steven Bates, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina
The regulations attempt to mirco-manage the clinics to the point of dictating the size of rooms,
the width of doorways, and the height of the ceiling. Planned Parenthood testified at a recent
public hearing that they would have to "close for an extended period of time, either for a
complete gutting and reconstruction of the current site or for relocation to another site."
Clinics are required to keep detailed patient files including information such as mother's name,
father's name, marital status, husband's name and religion. While it is unclear how a patient's
religion is relevant to the medical procedure, it is more disconcerting that DHEC, free to inspect
the facilities at any time without notice or reason, is permitted to make copies of these records
effectively nullifying doctor/patient confidentiality.
Staff and volunteer files are also open to inspection. Staff and volunteers, including clinic,
escorts will have personnel files kept on them. Clinic escorts, who are only needed because
women are continually assaulted while exercising a constitutional right, will have to undergo TB
testing. These tests and files do nothing more than raise the cost of the procedure. If TB tests are
needed for clinic escorts then they should be necessary for clinic protesters, too.
Abortion is defined to include any "medicine, drug or other substance" used to terminate
pregnancy. Should RU 486 or other such drug become legal in this country physicians would
either have to become mini-hospitals or be barred from administering these drugs in their offices
thus limiting women's access to abortion.
The standards have yet to be approved by the DHEC Board of Directors and by the General
Assembly. Sen. Holly Cork only reluctantly supported the Woman's Right to Know Act because
she was worried the legislation would be used to limit women's access to abortion. Upon
reading DHEC's proposal she said her "worst fears had been realized" and that DHEC had gone
far beyond the General Assembly's intent.
The DHEC board is a political creature. The present board was appointed to office by governors David Beasley and Carroll Campbell, both of whom oppose a woman's right to choose abortion. The board is overstepping its authority by doing what the Legislature has failed to do: terminate a woman's right to choose.
Katrina Nylund is program coordinator for A.C.L.U. of south Carolina.
"Application of these proposed regulations may well drive some, if not all, of the clinics in South Carolina out of business, severly restricting access to abortion."
Dr. William L. Lynn
