Abortion Expansion Bill Scheduled for Hearing

from Hawai’i Family Forum,   January 27, 2023

In this economy, families are struggling and issues like homelessness and poverty remain top issues across the country, Hawaii's Senate has decided that abortion expansion bills should take front and center.  

What happened before?

In a previous legislative session, the legislature expanded abortion in Hawaii by removing the section where abortions could take place.  [In the last session, the following sentence was removed] The abortion is performed in a hospital licensed by the department of health or operated by the federal government or an agency thereof, or in a clinic or physician's or osteopathic physician's office.

They added licensed advanced practice registered nurse in compliance with section 457-8.7.

Now they want to add Physician Assistants.

They also want to punish states who have established laws which they deem as harmful to women because of abortion restrictions.  So, in this bill, they want to ensure that if women fly to Hawaii to have an abortion, they are protected from any potential legal ramifications of the state they come from.

SB 1, Relating to Health Care has been scheduled for hearing next week Wednesday by a joint committee hearing of the Senate Health and Human Services and Consumer Protection. 

• DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 2023
• TIME: 1:10 PM
• PLACE: Conference Room 225 & Videoconference State Capitol 415 South Beretania Street
• TIMESLOT:  HHS

If you want to submit testimony, you can do so by registering at this link.  Please keep in mind that all testimony received by the Hawai‘i Senate is posted on the Hawai‘i Legislature's website, which is accessible to the public. Please do not include private information that you do not want disclosed to the public.

Please go to the Legislature's website, www.capitol.hawaii.gov, to submit written testimony at least 24 hours prior to the hearing. That means you must submit your testimony by Tuesday, January 31st at 1:00 p.m.  Create a free account on the website, or sign in to an existing account, then click on the "Participate" drop down menu and select the "Submit Testimony" option to get started. While submitting your written testimony, you will be prompted to indicate if you would also like to testify at the hearing in-person or remotely via videoconference.

Please note the following: 

The number of oral testifiers and/or time allotted to each testifier may be limited by the Chair when necessary to adhere to the committee hearing schedule. We may not be able to accommodate everyone who requests to testify orally.

Testifiers for this hearing will be limited to 2 minutes each.

If you wish to testify via videoconference during the hearing, please review the detailed step-by-step instructions for testimony procedures before you submit your written testimony. Here's a direct link to the instructions: https://capitol.hawaii.gov/docs/testimonyinstructions.pdf

ACTION:  

If you do not want to testify but you do want to raise your voice, you can call these committee members and ASK THEM POLITELY TO VOTE NO ON SB1 RELATING TO HEALTHCARE.  Mention that this is the abortion expansion bill and you are opposed.  If you are a constituent, please let them know.

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Upcoming Legislative Deadlines

FEB 8 (HOUSE) & 9 (SENATE) – TRIPLE REFERRAL FILING (BILLS) – All bills referred to three or more committees must be filed so that they can be in their second-to-last committee by the following day. (Note: A referral to a joint committee counts as one committee referral.) This deadline allows ample time for successful bills to make their way to the last committee in their originating chamber by the First Lateral deadline. 

FEB 17 – FIRST LATERAL (BILLS) – All bills referred to more than one committee must move to their final committee in the originating chamber by this day. (Note: Committees must file their committee report with the bill by the previous day, February 16.) 

FEB 23 - MAR 1 – MANDATORY 5-DAY RECESS – Hawaii’s Constitution mandates a 5-day recess between the 20th and 40th days of the regular session. Neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate convene or assemble formally in chamber on recess days. Committee hearings do take place.

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