Caring for local patients with serious complications following abortions spurred Fort Wayne obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Geoffrey Cly to appear before a state Senate committee Thursday in Indianapolis.

He testified in support of a bill that would mandate doctors who perform abortions have hospital privileges in or adjacent to the county where they perform outpatient abortions.

Senate Bill 146, authored by Sens. Patricia Miller of Indianapolis and Jeff Drozda of Westfield, would also require a doctor who performs abortions to tell patients the hospital where women can receive follow-up care by the doctor.

“In September a patient came in who had a (pregnancy) termination, and she had horrible complications,” Cly, who practices with Northeast OB-GYN in Fort Wayne, told The News-Sentinel. “She actually had pieces of the baby left inside her. … The current laws don’t have any quality control to protect these citizens.”

Unlike with hospital-based surgeries, Cly said abortion clinics are not required to do follow-up with patients or required to give patients emergency care if something goes wrong.

“If I did a D and C (dilation and curettage) for a miscarriage and left a piece (of the fetus) in that woman, I’d have doctors all over me saying, ‘What is your problem? What are you doing wrong? That’s not the case with these (abortion clinic) doctors.”

An official from Planned Parenthood of Indiana maintained a surgical abortion is one of the safest of all surgical procedures. “There is a continuum of care, and we have nurses on call 24/7,” said Amy Jacobson, legislative liaison for Planned Parenthood. “If there is a need for hospitalization – and it really is not something that necessarily happens – we would refer them to a hospital emergency room.”

Outpatient abortion clinics, as is the case with all outpatient surgery centers, must be licensed by the state and, under new state rules, must report medical errors or serious harm to the Indiana State Department of Health.

Mary Azbill, director of the state Department of Health’s Acute Care Division, said, however, the state does not require outpatient surgery centers to track patients who leave and later develop complications.

“We investigate complaints filed … on infection or other complications,” she said. “Usually this would be a transfer to (an) inpatient facility or re-admit to an inpatient facility after surgery.”

On an outpatient facility’s annual licensing survey, she said, “We look at how they track these (complications) and address (them) in their (Quality Assurance), but don’t have a rule on it. It is very hard to prove where the person was infected when they are in multiple facilities. We just look at infection rates and how they compare to other facilities doing the same surgery.”

The portion of the bill relating to doctors who perform outpatient abortions having hospital privileges passed the Senate last year but did not get a second reading in the House.

SB 146 also includes stipulations on informed consent of a woman seeking an abortion.

“I don’t care if you love abortion or abhor it,” Cly said. “Abortion is a very sad situation … a very sad choice. But if (women) make that choice, we still have to protect them. I feel like as long as it is legal, I can’t stand by and allow that harm.”

Jacobson, who also testified Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said, “All the issues were hotly debated issues that no one could really come to a clear decision about. We believe that this is still attempting to codify moral and religious beliefs.”

This marks the first year the list of informed-consent requirements has gone before the Judiciary Committee. In past years, similarly worded bills have been debated in the health and provider services committee.

“We feel the Senate Judiciary Committee should not be taking this up,” Jacobson said.

If it passes out of committee, the bill must have two more readings in the Senate before a vote is taken there, after which it would go before the House.