(Sen. Richard Stuart/General Assembly photo)

By CAITLIN MCCORMACK

(CNS) A  bill that would require women seeking hysterectomies to go through a detailed consent process, including a recommendation to a controversial hysterectomy foundation, faces an uncertain future following referral to the Senate Committee on Rules.

The bill, SB 331, proposed by Republican Sen. Richard Stuart of Westmoreland was nearly identical to a bill proposed by Del. Bobby Orrock (R-Thornburg) was killed in the Health and Human Services Committee on Feb 13.

The original wording of Stuart’s bill included new informed consent requirements, namely showing patients relevant diagrams for the procedure and directing them to the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services Foundation. It has since been edited following committee hearing and now aims at having the Department of Health Professionals review and make suggestions regarding the current informed consent requirements for hysterectomies, which is the removal of the uterus, and oophorectomies, which is the removal of ovaries.

Should the bill become law, the department would present its findings to the Chairman of the House Committee on Health and Human Services and the Senate Committee on Education and Health by Nov 1, 2024.

Stuart’s secretary said that he was not available for comment. Orrock proposed his bill after hearing from a constituent with endometriosis who had an ovary removed without her consent during an appendectomy procedure.

“In her late 20s, early 30s, she had one ovary removed as [the gynaecologist] felt the endometriosis was so acute,” Orrock said. “That was going to be the only solution to some of the pain she was experiencing.”

It was about five years later that she had the appendectomy that resulted in the unconsented removal of her second ovary, Orrock said.

The ideas proposed in the original bills and more could be enforced through the normal regulatory process depending on the DHP’s findings, according to Orrock.

Orrock said he had no contact with the HERS Foundation,  noting it was suggested to him by the constituent who first inspired the bill.

The HERS Foundation, founded in 1982, has no listed sources on its website but takes its information from personal testimonies and medical journals, Nora Coffey, president and founder of the HERS, said. Many of these are available for purchase on its website.

At the age of 36, Coffey had her uterus and ovaries removed without her consent. Today, she believes that true informed consent does not exist yet.

“If you agree to have surgery on the basis of what you’ve been told, you’re not told anything about the functions of the organs,” Coffey said. “What are the female organs? A lot of women really don’t know.”

Coffey praised Indiana Republican Sen. Bruce Borders’ bill IN HB1398, which was killed during the 2022 Indiana legislative session. It also served as the model for HB 217, Orrock said.

“If this is a life-threatening problem, you would choose a hysterectomy under those circumstances,” Coffey said. “And if it’s not life threatening, then you’re likely to choose another treatment.”

Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said that the bills can serve as a barrier, or even violator, of the standard relationship patients have with their physicians.

“It’s important that Virginians receive accurate and unbiased information before having these procedures,” Lockhart said. “And unfortunately, rather than help the informed consent process, laws that prescribe biased informed consent requirements unnecessarily and unjustifiably interfere with a provider-patient relationship.”

Denise Harrington, director of advocacy for the League of Women Voters, said that the bills are alarmingly reminiscent of the types of laws her mother had to fight in order to have her hysterectomy during the 1960s.

“When I saw SB 331, I was frightened and horrified that they were going to subject women to pictures, in-depth pictures that really only medical students should see, to almost kind of discourage them from having a hysterectomy or having your fallopian tubes tied or any type of sterilization,” Harrington said. “And I thought, this is a backdoor way of forcing women to bear children or to keep bearing children.”

Without the hysterectomy her mother received, she would have likely died, Harrington said. Even then, she faced a longer recovery process because of how long it took to receive approval for the procedure, which forced Harrington and her siblings to step up and take on additional responsibilities at a young age.

“I’ve gone to at least three funerals of people who sounded the alarm to their doctors and even went to get second opinions and were told that they were fine,” Harrington said. “The next thing you know, you’re going to their funeral.”

Harrington’s own request for a hysterectomy was recently denied. She is currently seeking a second opinion.