Size Matters: Maryland to Restrict Reproductive Rights by Mandating Wider Doors at Clinics

by Aimee Sea · 2011-01-12 06:00:00 UTC
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How much trouble could a wider door cause? A lot, if that door leads to a Maryland health clinic that provides abortions.

Since 1991, the Maryland Department of Health and Human Hygiene has been required to regulate abortion providers using the "least intrusive method." Delegates Adelaide C. Eckardt and Pamela Beidle have apparently misread that clause as they've introduce a bill requiring abortion providers to be regulated as surgical centers. Senator Nancy Jacobs plans to introduce a similar bill in the State Senate.

Surgical centers are held to tougher requirements than clinics and doctors offices, where 95% of abortions are performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Surgical centers must have wider doors and hallways, and specialized medical equipment, like ventilators, that are not required at clinics. According to John Nugent, President of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, few (if any) of the 41 abortion providers in the state have the financial means to implement such medically unnecessary changes. Probably because they're spending their money, you know, treating their patients.

Nugent's new clinic would also have to close its doors: the building is only five years old and was built to conform with the requirements of a doctor's office (hallways eight feet wide). If the clinic were regulated as a surgical center, the hallways would have to be at least 12 feet wide. Nugent deemed this overkill: "There's no reason to enact a new law that regulates the size of a hallway. Regulate the standard of care for actually providing abortions."

Similar bills in prior legislative session have failed, but legislators and advocates believe these bills have a stronger chance this time, in part because Dr. LeRoy Carhart began practicing in Maryland in December. After the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Dr. Carhart is one of the few remaining late-term abortion providers in the country.

Maryland is not the only state attempting to restrict reproductive rights. Last week, our own Roxanne MtJoy wrote about Iowa's efforts to restrict abortion access for rural women, and other states face similar threats to women's choice. Maryland's proposed law is yet another attempt to deny women their legal right to terminate a pregnancy, and it needs to be stopped.

Photo credit: openDemocracy

Aimee Sea is a proud New Englander who blogs about global women's rights and whatever else happens to catch her eye.

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