FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Anna Núñez, Communications Coordinator, ACLU of Texas, 713-942-8146, ext. 110, [email protected]
AUSTIN — On Wednesday, the Texas House State Affairs Committee will hear testimony on a bill that abortion rights advocates say would remove state-mandated misinformation from the Women’s Right to Know Act. The current law requires health care providers to give their patients medically inaccurate information about abortion and pregnancy.
“The physician-patient relationship is a sacred trust. If the state can require doctors to give patients something other than honest and accurate medical information, that entire relationship of trust is eroded,” Dr. H. Brook Randal, an emergency room physician, said. “HB 708 is necessary to protect all communications between physicians and their patients.”
HB 708, by state Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, would require the information which the Women’s Right to Know Act mandates physicians disclose to their patients be medically accurate and supported by objective research that complies with the National Institute of Health and affiliated organizations’ standards.
“Patients trust that the information they receive from health care providers is medically accurate,” Farrar said. “The current Texas law forces health care providers to choose between violating their ethical obligations and violating the law.”
Abortion providers are currently required by the Women’s Right to Know Act to tell patients that there might be a causal link between abortion and breast cancer, a claim that is rejected by leading medical organizations including the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Presently, the pamphlet abortion providers are required to give to patients by state law includes misleading statistics on abortion risks and childbirth, medically inaccurate language and other widely refuted information about the emotional effects of abortion.
"These lies are influenced by groups and politicians who want to make safe abortion completely inaccessible in Texas,” Andrea Ferrigno, corporate vice president of Whole Woman’s Health, said. “Women of this state have the right to the proper information and resources needed to make the best decisions for their health, lives and families, without our government interjecting offensive and ideological viewpoints.”
ACLU of Texas, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH), Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, Texas Freedom Network, Texas Research Institute, and Whole Woman’s Health will testify in support of HB 708 as the Trust. Respect. Access. coalition.
