DOVER — An effort to increase access to abortions moved forward Wednesday after the House Health & Human Development Committee approved it, advancing it to the House for a full vote.

House Bill 320, which is sponsored by Rep. Debra Heffernan, D-Bellefonte, Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, D-Talleyville, and Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, would allow physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe Mifeprex, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Current state code allows only qualified physicians to prescribe abortion medication. While physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses have the qualifications to prescribe most medications, the state code prevents them from prescribing these types of abortion medication.

Medical abortions are especially safe, as less than .31% of patients have reported major complications to these medications which block progesterone and can end pregnancies that are less than 10 weeks along, according to Rep. Heffernan.

She explained to committee members that the restrictions greatly limit access to this type of care.

“Not allowing advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants to prescribe this medication when they prescribe every other medication, including opiates, is a medically unnecessary restriction and regulation that prohibits qualified medical professionals from delivering this type of care in their scope of practice,” Rep. Heffernan said.

Medical abortions account for over 54% of abortions in the United States, according to Rep. Heffernan, and should these medications be prescribed within the first nine to 10 weeks of gestation, there is a 99.6% success rate.

Allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe this medication would provide increased access to safe medical abortions, she said.

“We have highly qualified physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses that are taking over a lot of responsibilities in their practice, and the doctors may not be able to have the time to do these prescriptions,” Rep. Heffernan said.

“Maybe they’re only able to have appointments a couple times a week. This increases access for women in Delaware right now, especially those in underserved communities and in rural communities.”

The FDA approved Mifeprex in 2000, and in 2019, the generic version of Mifeprex, mifepristone, was also approved. A regimen passed by the FDA in 2016 prompted Mifeprex and mifepristone users to follow up their dosage with misoprostol in order to prevent any side effects from the initial dosage of abortion medication.

Members of the committee shared their opinions regarding the bill with many applauding Rep. Heffernan’s efforts to support reproductive rights in Delaware, including Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, D-New Castle, who said women know best when it comes to their reproductive needs.

“I just don’t want to discredit women knowing what they need and where to get it from,” Rep. Minor-Brown said.

“I’m not going to call my cardiology office and ask for a pap smear; I’m going to go to my OB-GYN. There are nurse practitioners that work in women’s health, but when we start taking this too broad, we’re forgetting that women know what they need and where to get what they need.”

Though many committee members supported HB 320, others voted against the bill. Rep. Richard Collins, R-Millsboro, said he could not commit to HB 320, citing the immorality of abortion as his reason.

“According to the CDC, from 1973 to 2019 there were over 60 million abortions in this country, and that does not include three states, including California, so the number is probably far, far higher than that,” Rep. Collins said.

“I just truly cannot understand the passion behind abortion. We keep talking about women’s health, but half of these children being aborted are girls, so I just don’t understand. I wish somebody someday could come by and explain to me in a moral way exactly why we do these things.”

Since the House Health & Human Development Committee voted HB 320 out of committee, it now waits on the ready list where it will be voted on by the House. Should the bill receive favor from both the House and Senate, Gov. John Carney would need to sign the legislation into effect.