Michigan committee hears bills to reinstate abortion complication reporting and criminalize disclosure of confidential data

The House Health Policy Committee on [date] heard testimony on a three‑bill package, House Bills 5201–5203, that would reinstate anonymized reporting of abortion procedures and complications and create criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure of confidential abortion information.

Sponsor representatives introduced the bills as a public‑health and safety measure intended to provide data lawmakers can use to support women and reduce abortions. "We have a lot of abortions that are occurring, and this legislation is designed to give us data around these procedures," a sponsor said during opening testimony.

Rebecca Masti of the Michigan Catholic Conference told the committee that Michigan records about 150,000 pregnancies and nearly 30,000 abortions annually and urged restoring data collection that was removed after a 2023 repeal. "Accurate data is needed to inform policy makers, public health officials, medical researchers and other scholars," Masti said.

Genevieve Marnin, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, argued reporting had been in place for decades and cited the state's last 2024 abortion report, which she said showed a 38 percent spike in reported complications after which the prior report series was eliminated. She also cited a meta‑analysis she described as examining 850,000 patient records that found a 10.9 percent serious‑adverse‑event rate in chemical abortions and said 40 percent of those cases required emergency care. Marnin said the bills would "provide that information" and protect women by restoring reporting.

A sponsor of HB 5203 described the bill's criminal penalty for disclosure as intended to protect patient privacy: making disclosure a felony punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine up to $5,000. "No one should fear other people, including the government, seeing that information," the sponsor said.

Members asked whether the state currently tracks abortion complications and how reporting would compare with other medical procedures. Committee members were told maternal mortality remains tracked in Michigan, but that abortion‑specific complication reporting and the prior inspection/licensing scheme for surgical abortion facilities were removed in 2023. Witnesses said those changes left a gap in routine inspection and data collection.

Several committee members raised potential policy tradeoffs: what demographic and clinical variables are necessary to produce useful analysis, whether provider‑level flagging or inspections should accompany anonymized reporting, and how reports would be used by the Department of Health and Human Services. "If MDHHS has knowledge of a poor provider or ongoing poor outcomes, do they have an onus to do anything with that provider?" a committee member asked.

A number of organizations filed written opposition or non‑support cards the clerk read into the record, including Planned Parenthood (written testimony), the Michigan Nurses Association, the ACLU of Michigan and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The committee did not take final action on the bills at this meeting.

The committee paused debate to take several unrelated referral votes and then returned to additional testimony. The sponsors said they welcome amendments to clarify enforcement and to create tripwires for departmental follow‑up if patterns of adverse events emerge.

Next steps: The committee did not report the package out at this meeting; sponsors said they expect continued hearings and are open to amendments addressing provider oversight and data elements.