Caren Schubart

I oppose the SB 36 bill, Relative to the collection and reporting of abortion statistics by health care providers and medical facilities. It is my feeling that having a abortion is a private matter that should be decided by the doctors, patients and the family members involved. While it is stated that the annual reports will not be identifying individual patients or providers, it also states that the DHHS commissioner will be responsible to prepare statistical trends and adopt rules regarding data collection and confidentiality which could easily lead back to the original facilities and providers. The facilities themselves may be shut down by those people who don't believe that decisions should be made by the doctors and pregnant patients. The facilities maybe facing closure if certain politicians don't like the statistics. I believe there is a hidden agenda here to collect statistics to close facilities where abortions are done without caring for the needs of the individuals. In addition the DHHS commissioner is giving too much power to adopt the rules regarding the data collection and confidentiality.