2010 Mississippi Code
TITLE 41 - PUBLIC HEALTH
Chapter 41 - Surgical or Medical Procedures; Consents.
41-41-77 - Physicians to file regular reports to state on patients treated or dying in abortion procedures; confidentiality; sanctions for breach of confidentiality.

§ 41-41-77. Physicians to file regular reports to state on patients treated or dying in abortion procedures; confidentiality; sanctions for breach of confidentiality.
 

(1)  A physician shall file a written report with the State Department of Health regarding each patient who comes under the physician's professional care and requires medical treatment or suffers death that the attending physician has a reasonable basis to believe is a primary, secondary, or tertiary result of an induced abortion. 

(2)  These reports shall be submitted within thirty (30) days of the discharge or death of the patient treated for the complication. 

(3)  The department shall summarize aggregate data from the reports required under this section for purposes of inclusion into the annual Vital Statistics Report. 

(4)  The department shall develop and distribute or make available online in a downloadable format a standardized form for the report required under this section. 

(5)  The department shall communicate this reporting requirement to all medical professional organizations, licensed physicians, hospitals, emergency rooms, abortion facilities, Department of Health clinics and ambulatory surgical facilities operating in the state. 

(6)  The department shall destroy each individual report required by this section and each copy of the report after retaining the report for five (5) years after the date the report is received. 

(7)  The report required under this section shall not contain the name of the woman, common identifiers such as her social security number or motor vehicle operator's license number or other information or identifiers that would make it possible to identify in any manner or under any circumstances an individual who has obtained or seeks to obtain an abortion. A state agency shall not compare data in an electronic or other information system file with data in another electronic or other information system that would result in identifying in any manner or under any circumstances an individual obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion. Statistical information that may reveal the identity of a woman obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion shall not be maintained. 

(8)  The department or an employee of the department shall not disclose to a person or entity outside the department the reports or the contents of the reports required under this section in a manner or fashion as to permit the person or entity to whom the report is disclosed to identify in any way the person who is the subject of the report. 

(9)  Disclosure of confidential identifying information in violation of this section shall constitute a felony which, upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for not more than three (3) years, or a fine of not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or both. 
 

Sources: Laws, 2004, ch. 499, § 3, eff from and after July 1, 2004.