The Illinois Home Birth Safety Act did not pass

So SB 3712, the Illinois Home Birth Safety Act, did not pass. Despite passing the Senate it failed to pass the House by a larger margin than any of us thought it would, mostly because the Illinois State Medical Society went completely apes**t about it.

The good news is that they really paid attention to this bill. You can see on their website that the ISMS is still freaking out about the midwife bill:

Seriously? Seriously.

The bad news is that the ISMS and the American Medical Society (which is centered in Chicago) have a lot more money and lobbying power to defend their market. It's amazing to what extent the Illinois State Medical Society was willing to jump to conclusions about midwives to scare people about this bill, neglecting to mention that more than half of the United States can safely use legal certified professional midwives. But despite the ISMS's "action alerts," nobody I know in real life was concerned about this bill, and most people didn't even know it existed. I don't think their campaign reached that many voters. Maybe it wasn't intended to. But apparently enough State Representatives were concerned about this bill -- representatives who probably don't have to answer to too many home birthing families at fundraising dinners. Physicians and physician lobbies are another financial matter altogether, and probably explains why a disproportionate number of reps were concerned when the general public and the news media were not. This is what the ISMS means by "physician support" against the bill.

The fact of the matter is that physician groups in this state, notably the ISMS, the American Congress of Ob-Gyns, and the American Medical Association, have a history of refusing to look at new and more efficient models of care, regardless of what the people want. They fought or tried to restrict the very existence of advanced practice nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, and nurse midwives, and they lobbied against and tried to restrict pharmacy clinics. This despite the improved patient safety, patient outcomes, and decreased patient costs that these entities have brought to Illinois. CPMs are another group of practicing professionals who, despite being tested and proven in the rest of the USA, threaten the inflated practice costs and the exclusive domains of practice that physicians are trying to maintain.

The Illinois State Medical Society is right: some form of this bill will be back. It has to. Our society and our market are not going to continue to support the higher expense and poorer outcomes that occur when birth is the exclusive domain of surgeons and hospitals. The only thing holding it back is the money physicians already have, and in this economy that might not last forever.

You can read my summary of SB 3712 The Home Birth Safety Act here. (Be careful, it's soooo scary.)