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Committee hears sharply divided testimony on bill requiring statewide reporting of abortion statistics; DHHS warns of privacy and fiscal costs
Summary
Senator Kevin Abarth introduced Senate Bill 36 to require the Department of Health and Human Services to collect anonymized data on all terminated pregnancies; department officials and providers warned about privacy, technical and fiscal issues.
Senator Kevin Abarth introduced Senate Bill 36 as a measure to require state reporting of anonymized abortion statistics, saying New Hampshire is one of a small number of states that does not collect such data and arguing better statistics are needed for policymaking.
Patricia Tilly, associate commissioner at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee the bill would create a new reporting system that the department does not now have authority or a HIPAA‑compliant technical platform to operate. Tilly said the bill as drafted appears to expand reporting from late-term procedures in RSA 329 to all terminations and would require more detailed elements — including dates and locations — that, under HIPAA rules, are treated as identifiers and therefore require secure handling.
Why it matters: Supporters say standardized…
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