Committee advances bill requiring surgical abortion facilities to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers

CHEYENNE, Feb. 14 — The Senate Labor, Health & Social Services Committee voted to advance House Bill 42, a measure that would bring surgical abortion facilities in Wyoming under the state ambulatory surgical center licensing regime and add related reporting, inspection and admitting-privileges requirements.

Representative Volley, sponsor of House Bill 42, told the committee the state has an obligation "to protect the health and safety of women who are getting surgical abortions." Volley described the bill as aligning surgical abortion facilities with existing ambulatory surgical center standards and said the measure would require such facilities to be licensed and inspected, require procedures to be performed by physicians licensed in Wyoming, and require those physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 10 miles of the surgical facility.

Under the bill text discussed at the hearing, a surgical abortion facility would be defined as an ambulatory surgical center and subject to licensing, periodic on-site surveys (the bill…