Report Title:

Privacy; Reproductive Freedom

Description:

Prohibits state interference with the right to abortion prior to viability of the fetus or when abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the female. Defines unauthorized abortion.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1307

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), a challenge to a Texas statute that made it a crime to perform an abortion unless a women's life was at stake. The case had been filed by "Jane Roe", an unmarried woman who wanted to safely and legally end her pregnancy. Siding with Roe, the court struck down the Texas law. In its ruling, the court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy."

In the early 1970s, Hawaii became one of four states, with Alaska, New York and Washington, to repeal our abortion ban and decriminalize abortion. In 1965, abortion was so unsafe that seventeen percent of all deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth were the result of illegal abortion. Today, abortion is eleven times safer than childbirth.

The right to make childbearing decisions has also enabled women to pursue educational and employment opportunities that were often unthinkable a generation ago. The Supreme Court noted in 1992 that "the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives." Justice Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe, called the decision "a step that had to be taken as we go down the road toward the full emancipation of women."

On this, the thirty-second anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the legislature affirms its commitment to protect the reproductive freedom of Hawaii's people. The legislature finds that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy with respect to personal reproductive decisions. Accordingly, it is the public policy of the State of Hawaii that:

(1) Every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse birth control;

(2) Every female has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child or to choose and to obtain an abortion, except as specifically limited by state law; and

(3) The State shall not deny or interfere with a female's fundamental right to choose to bear a child or to choose to obtain an abortion.

SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Chapter

INTENTIONAL TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY

§ -1 Definitions. The following definitions shall apply for the purposes of this chapter:

"Abortion" means any medical treatment intended to induce the termination of a pregnancy except for the purpose of producing a live birth.

"Pregnancy" means the implantation of an embryo in the uterus.

"State" means the State of Hawaii, and every county, city, town, and political subdivision thereof.

"Viability" means the point in a pregnancy when, in the good faith medical judgment of a physician, on the particular facts of the case before that physician, there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

§ -2 Freedom from state interference with abortion. The State may not deny or interfere with a female's right to choose or obtain an abortion prior to viability of the fetus or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the female.

§ -3 When abortion unauthorized. The performance of an abortion is unauthorized if either of the following is true:

(1) The person performing or assisting in performing the abortion is not a health care provider authorized to perform or assist in performing an abortion pursuant to section 453-16(a)(1); or

(2) The abortion is performed on a viable fetus, and both of the following are established:

(A) In the good faith medical judgment of the physician, the fetus was viable; and

(B) In the good faith medical judgment of the physician, continuation of the pregnancy posed no risk to life or health of the pregnant female."

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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