Measure would increase transparency for complication rates

State Rep. John Reilly, of Oakland Township, has reintroduced legislation he sponsored last term upgrading a 1999 Michigan law designed to ensure abortion injuries and deaths are tracked and reported.

Reilly introduced the measure after the tragic death of a young Battle Creek woman that resulted from a failed abortion in 2016.

“Because Cree Erwin died at home, and not under the immediate care of a physician, no one was technically required to report her death as a complication from an abortion,” Reilly said. “This bill would update the 20-year-old abortion injury reporting law to require a medical examiner to report a death caused by abortion.”

Reilly’s legislation, called the Citizen Accountability Act, would allow citizens who are aware of an abortion injury to notify health providers and the state health department that an injury report should be filed.

The representative says abortion complications are highly under-reported, resulting in misinformation for those considering an abortion. In 2016, a U.S. Supreme Court case struck a Texas law regulating abortion clinics, ruling that abortion injuries are so rare that the regulations were unnecessary. Reilly maintains that abortion injuries aren’t as rare as reports show.

“Given that Michigan’s reported abortion complications total only one-tenth of one percent of all abortions, it is clear that complications are grossly under-reported,” Reilly said. “No other medical procedure in existence has a complication rate that low.

“Abortion procedures come with real risks to women and that reality has been hidden from sight. Regardless of one’s stance on abortion, women deserve to know the truth about these risks.”

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