Amends TCA Section 10-7-504; Title 39; Title 63 and Title 68.

This bill establishes a requirement for access consultation prior to a woman having an abortion, establishes requirements for the department of health to create certain programs and services, and establishes certain requirements for a physician who will be performing an abortion, all as discussed below. This bill requires, except during a medical emergency, the state to provide and a pregnant woman to complete a free resource access consultation that complies with this bill, before an abortion is performed on the woman. A resource access consultation will consist of the following elements: (1) A care agent must explain the services offered under this bill to the pregnant woman; (2) A care agent must inform the pregnant woman of the availability of free care plan coordination and make care plan coordination available to her; (3) A care agent must inform the pregnant woman of the availability of a free healthy pregnancy program and provide her the opportunity to participate in the healthy pregnancy program; and (4) A care agent must offer assistance for violence, abuse, and neglect victimization; abortion coercion; and human trafficking. This bill requires the department of health to make free care plan coordination available to each pregnant woman who receives a resource access consultation, other pregnant women residing in this state, the biological father of any pregnant woman's unborn child, and the parents or legal guardians of a pregnant minor. The department will prioritize care plan coordination for women who have completed a resource access consultation. This bill states that a pregnant woman will not be required to obtain care plan coordination services to obtain an abortion. Also, the woman will not be required to disclose the identity of the woman's parents or the unborn child's father or inform her parents or her unborn child's father of the right to participate in care plan coordination. This bill sets out in detail what will be included in care plan coordination, which includes education on available public and private resources to address the pregnant woman's or biological father's socioeconomic needs and assistance obtaining obstetric care, primary care, or mental health or behavioral counseling. A care agent providing care plan coordination must either be licensed as a counselor, psychologist, physician, social worker, nurse, nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, or marriage and family therapist; be acting under the supervision of an individual possessing one of those licenses; or be acting under the direction of a person possessing an advanced degree in community health, public health, social work, nursing, or medicine. Care plan coordination will not include referrals for abortion, promotion of abortion, support of abortion as a method of family planning, or any other affirmative action to assist a woman in obtaining an abortion. This bill requires the department to make care plan coordination available for two years from the date of the initial resource access consultation, regardless of the outcome of the pregnant woman's pregnancy. This bill also requires the department to make a healthy pregnancy program available to each pregnant woman who receives a resource access consultation, other pregnant women residing in this state, and the parents of legal guardians of a pregnant minor residing in this state. This bill sets out in detail what is to be included in the program. The department of health must make healthy pregnancy program services available until the end of the pregnant woman's pregnancy. Healthy pregnancy program services must be available to any woman, regardless of whether she has completed a resource access consultation. This bill further requires the department to: establish a single toll-free number by which all pregnant women seeking an abortion in this state may immediately receive a resource access consultation; and develop and maintain a secure database for the completion of the physician-related requirements of this bill (discussed below). The department will annually report to the general assembly the number of pregnant women who were provided a resource access consultation by the department and the number of women who subsequently obtained an abortion in the state. This bill establishes other reporting requirements whereby the department will inform the general assembly regarding other statistical information on the consultations, programs, and services under this bill. This bill requires a physician who is to perform an abortion or the physician's agent to perform all of the following, before accepting any payment for abortion-related services, performing an abortion, or administering any sedative or anesthesia: (1) Register each prospective abortion in the department's secure database and obtain a unique identifying number (devoid of personally identifying information) for the abortion to be performed; (2) Provide the pregnant woman seeking abortion services with a unique identifying number; (3) Record the unique identifying number specific to the woman's abortion in the woman's medical file; (4) Verify through the department's secure database that the woman has received a resource access consultation; (5) Document the verification in the commission's secure database; and (6) Record the verification in the woman's medical record. A physician who performs an abortion or the physician's agent must, within two business days of the completion of an abortion, report to the department the unique identifying number for each abortion performed and the date and time the abortion was performed. The department must use the unique identifying number to confirm in the secure database that the pregnant woman completed the resource access consultation prior to the abortion. In order to enforce compliance, the department will audit the medical records kept by every physician who performs an abortion according to a process set out in detail in this bill. This bill establishes a civil penalty of $5,000 per each abortion performed without complying with this bill. This bill also authorizes the attorney general to file an action to recover a civil penalty assessed under this provision. Also, the board for licensing health care facilities will revoke the license of a facility if greater than 5 percent of the medical records audited at that facility do not comply with this bill. This bill specifies that all information and records held by the department pursuant to this bill are confidential and are not public records, but the records will be available in certain limited circumstances to certain persons, such as appropriate state agencies or county and district courts to enforce this bill. This bill requires the department to create, by January 1, 2022, a website specific to the program established in this bill that describes the services offered by the department. For the purposes of implementation, this bill will take effect upon becoming a law. For all other purposes, this bill will take effect January 1, 2022.