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.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5161
SPONSOR: DeStefano TITLE OF BILL:
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
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this legislation is to allow women to seek alternative
methods in regards to abortion by allowing for a sedated birth procedure
starting at twenty-four weeks of pregnancy.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Defines the terms Sedated birth and Perinatal hospice. It
also outlines the conditions of a sedated birth, the duties of health-
care practitioners caring for patients considering abortion,. and what
happens to the fetus after the procedure.
Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
In 1970, New York State recognized that a woman has the fundamental
right to make medical decisions about the course of a pregnancy. Unfor-
tunately, persons seeking to make these medical decisions regarding
pregnancy are acutely unaware of certain options available to them. In
supporting a woman's right to choose, one must be aware of the options
that are available to choose from. Not only is this common sense, but it
is also a medical practice standard to require informed consent from the
patient when offering medical procedures. Part of informed consent is
informing the patient of alternative treatment options. This is not
happening in the case of patients deciding the outcome of their pregnan-
cy. Patients are being denied informed consent and thereby denied
comprehensive reproductive health care. The goal of medical regulation
should be to improve the quality and access to health care services.
Since, the passing of The Reproductive Health Act January 2019, more
women are able to choose abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy. The
Reproductive Health Act also established that "every individual who
becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry the preg-
nancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion." ,
Women's rights are being violated when they are advised to have an
abortion due to a fatal, terminal or otherwise abnormal fetal diagnosis
without being told other alternatives exist. Individuals have the right
to carry the pregnancy to term and they have a right to access perinatal
hospice care, rights they are denied when they are not informed of their
options. In the same way, women's rights are being violated when they
are not aware of sedated birth options in late term pregnancy.
This law will enable persons considering their options related to the
course of their pregnancy to consider all options and make a choice they
are happy with based on knowledge of these options and informed consent.
At the current time, people considering the course of their pregnancy
post 24 weeks gestation, as well as the general public, are not aware of
sedated birth or perinatal hospice. To not inform people of these choic-
es is an injustice and results in inequality of care. This lack of
information marginalizes the subset of patients seeking reproductive
health options.
The intent of this law is to end the lack of informed consent and to end
the inequality and injustice in reproductive health by requiring health-
care providers to inform patients of the options of sedated birth and
perinatal hospice. The current state of comprehensive reproductive
healthcare is not in alignment with New York's public policy that states
that every individual possesses a fundamental right of privacy and
equality with respect to their personal reproductive decisions and
should be able to safely effectuate those decisions. This law would
enable individuals to exercise these rights.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.3752 of 2021/22-held for consideration in Health;
A3479 of 2023/24-eferred to health
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Undetermined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
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.
