Provides pregnant persons with alternative birth choices to preserve the life of a fetus when electing to have an abortion by health care practitioners offering sedated birth and perinatal hospice procedures.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5161
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 12, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DeSTEFANO, E. BROWN -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to providing pregnant
persons with alternative birth choices to preserve the life of a fetus
when electing to have an abortion
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 2599-bb of the public health law
2 is renumbered subdivision 7 and five new subdivisions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
3 are added to read as follows:
4 2. For purposes of this section, the following terms have the follow-
5 ing definitions:
6 (a) "Sedated birth" shall mean a procedure to take place past twenty-
7 four weeks of pregnancy as an alternative to abortion where a pregnant
8 person receives general anesthesia and medical interventions to induce
9 labor and delivery, while medical interventions are not taken to stop
10 the heartbeat or otherwise end the life of the fetus. The fetus is then
11 born alive and intact.
12 (b) "Perinatal hospice" shall mean specialized perinatal care which
13 can take place at any point during a pregnancy as an alternative to
14 surgical abortion centered on ensuring a peaceful, nonviolent and
15 natural end to a baby's life that includes emotional support provided to
16 the parents, the opportunity for parents to participate in the health-
17 care decision making process and the opportunity for parents to cele-
18 brate their baby's life, whether such baby's life lasts for an amount of
19 time after birth or ends naturally before birth.
20 3. When a health care practitioner is caring for a patient who is
21 considering abortion and such abortion would be performed more than
22 twenty-four weeks from the commencement of pregnancy because such
23 abortion is necessary to protect such patient's life or health, such
24 health care practitioner shall inform such patient before any procedure
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08204-01-5
A. 5161 2
1 is commenced that surgical abortion is not a reversible procedure, and
2 that such patient shall have the option to choose sedated birth as an
3 alternative to abortion.
4 4. When a health care practitioner is caring for a patient who is
5 considering abortion, such health care practitioner shall inform such
6 patient before any procedure is commenced that surgical abortion is not
7 a reversible procedure, and that such patient shall have the option to
8 choose perinatal hospice, if applicable, as an alternative to abortion.
9 5. A health care practitioner shall inform patients considering an
10 abortion procedure about the alternatives to abortions described in this
11 section both verbally and in writing. Health care practitioners shall
12 document in a patient's permanent medical record the time and date that
13 information pertaining to such alternatives was provided to the patient.
14 6. (a) If a patient should choose sedated birth as an alternative to
15 abortion pursuant to subdivision three of this section, the patient
16 shall have the option once the procedure is completed to have the baby
17 removed from such patient's presence with no additional contact post-
18 birth, whereas constituting an abandonment of the child pursuant to
19 section three hundred seventy-two-g of the social services law, or to
20 have the baby put up for adoption and the opportunity to work directly
21 with an adoption agency post-birth.
22 (b) If a patient should choose to have the baby removed from such
23 patient's presence with no contact post-birth, such baby would be placed
24 under the care of the department of social services pursuant to section
25 three hundred seventy-two-g of the social services law.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
