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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Senate has voted to make the state keep track of how many women die because of abortion.
There's one catch: That requirement has been in state law since 2004.
Senate Bill 2043 (http://bit.ly/1zUyjxa ), which passed the Senate on Thursday, tells the state Health Department to establish a Maternal Mortality Review Committee. The group would keep track of statistics about pregnancy-related deaths and make recommendations about how to reduce those deaths.
An amendment Thursday specifies that records must be kept about any death that occurs after a woman has an abortion.
The health department website shows no women died because of an abortion in Mississippi in 2012 (http://1.usa.gov/1n98YUl ). That's the most recent year for which vital health statistics are available.
The measure goes next to the House for debate.
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