Alabama Republican Congressman Gary Palmer and Congressman Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, have introduced the Ensuring Accurate and Complete Data Reporting Act, a bill seeking to improve the reporting of abortion data to the CDC.
“Accurate and transparent reporting on abortion and children who survive abortion attempts is essential to public health research and to determining sound policy,” Palmer said. “Reporting abortion data has been voluntary for too long, and this has led to states withholding many data points routinely requested by the CDC. We must ensure that states are providing accurate information regarding abortions and the children who survive them. This bill would ensure that states cannot distort or provide faulty data in an effort to cover up the true numbers of innocent lives lost by abortion.”
“I want to thank Rep. Gary Palmer for his leadership on this important issue,” Norman said. “This legislation will incentivize states to accurately report their abortion data to the CDC, increase transparency, and ultimately help Congress exercise effective oversight of these taxpayer-subsidized family planning programs.”
If passed, the bill would mandate accurate reporting of abortion data to the CDC. It would also offer technical assistance with data collection at the state level.
The bill would require that data points include the number of abortions and the number of children who survive abortion attempts in each state. States that withhold or falsify such information would be penalized by losing eligibility for family planning services funding from Medicaid for a time.
Moving any sort of abortion legislation will be difficult with Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress as well as the White House.
Palmer represents Alabama’s 6th Congressional District. This is his fourth term serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.
