Bill > S3030

Introduced Session

This bill, to be known as the "Reproductive Freedom Act," would make various changes to the law to facilitate and safeguard the individual right to reproductive autonomy in the State. The State Supreme Court has held that the New Jersey Constitution protects the right to reproductive autonomy and choice, including the right to choose abortion, to an extent that exceeds the protections found in the federal Constitution. Although the right to reproductive choice and autonomy, including the right to choose abortion, is not specifically expressed within the text of the State Constitution, the Supreme Court has concluded that the right to reproductive autonomy derives from the provisions of Article I, paragraph 1 of the State Constitution, which provide extensive protections for individual liberty and privacy to an extent that exceeds the protections established under the United States Constitution. This bill would make it express, within the State's statutory law, that every individual in the State, regardless of whether they are domiciled in the State, and regardless of whether or not the individual is under State control, has a fundamental right to: 1) choose or refuse contraception or sterilization; and 2) choose whether to carry a pregnancy, to give birth, or to have an abortion. Under the bill's provisions, no individual would be subject to prosecution or otherwise deprived of their individual constitutional rights for terminating or attempting to terminate the individual's own pregnancy or for acting or failing to act, in any manner, with respect to the individual's own pregnancy, based on the potential or actual impact on the individual's own health or pregnancy. The bill specifies that no public entity may, in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information, deny or interfere with an individual's fundamental reproductive rights, as expressed in the bill. The bill further provides that, in protecting or enforcing the fundamental reproductive rights recognized by the bill, a public entity may not discriminate on the basis of: sex, including, but not limited to, sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or perceived gender identity or expression; disability; race; ethnicity; age; national origin; immigration status; religion; incarceration status; or economic status. The bill specifies that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus may not be understood to have independent rights under any of the laws of this State, and it further specifies that any health care professional, acting within the professional's lawful scope of practice and in compliance with generally applicable regulations, is authorized to provide abortion care. Current regulations of the State Board of Medical Examiners and the Commissioner of Human Services, which are codified in Titles 10 and 13 of the New Jersey Administrative Code, specifically regulate the procedures that may be used in the termination of pregnancy and limit coverage for abortion based on the type of facility and professional that provides the abortion services. Because these existing regulations are medically unnecessary forms of abortion regulation, which conflict with the purposes of the bill, the bill would specify that, following its effective date, these and all other rules or regulations that specifically regulate and apply exclusively to the termination of pregnancy or are otherwise inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions or express or implied purposes of the bill will become void, inoperable, and unenforceable. Any person who is aggrieved by an action that is undertaken in violation of the bill's provisions will be entitled to bring suit under the "New Jersey Civil Rights Act," P.L.2004, c.143 (C.10:6-1 et seq.) or to enforce the bill's provisions in any other manner provided by law. In addition to recognizing an individual's fundamental rights to reproductive autonomy and choice, the bill also requires all providers of health insurance (including hospital service corporations, medical service corporations, health service corporations, individual and group health insurance carriers, individual and group health benefits plans, the State Health Benefits Commission, and the School Employees' Health Benefits Commission) to provide coverage for abortion. An insurance contract, policy, or plan may not impose any restrictions or delays on, and may not require prior authorization for, the abortion coverage required by the bill. An insurance contract, policy, or plan also may not impose any deductible, coinsurance, copayment, or other cost-sharing requirement on the coverage required by the bill and, for a qualifying high-deductible health plan for a health savings account, the cost-sharing for coverage is to be set at the minimum level necessary to preserve the covered person's ability to claim tax-exempt contributions and withdrawals from the covered person's health savings account under 26 U.S.C. s.223. Notwithstanding the bill's insurance coverage requirements, if the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance concludes that the provision of insurance coverage for abortion, in accordance with the bill, might adversely affect the allocation of federal funds to the State, the commissioner may grant an exemption to the coverage requirements, but only to the minimum extent necessary to ensure the continued receipt of federal funds. In addition, the bill provides that religious employers will be eligible to request and obtain an exclusion from the bill's abortion coverage requirements if the required coverage conflicts with the religious employer's bona fide religious beliefs and practices. A religious employer that obtains such an exclusion will be required to provide written notice thereof to covered persons and prospective covered persons. The bill specifies, however, that nothing in its provisions may be construed as authorizing an insurance carrier to exclude coverage for abortion care that is necessary to preserve the life or health of the covered person. The bill also amends the existing insurance laws that pertain to the provision of coverage for contraceptive care in order to require coverage for the dispensing of a single dispensing unit of up to a 13-unit supply of prescription contraceptives, intended to last over a 12-month period, regardless of whether coverage was in effect at the time of the first dispensing, and except in cases where a 12-month supply would extend beyond the terms of the insurance contract, policy, or plan. Current law requires coverage for only a three-month period in association with the first dispensing of a contraceptive and for a six-month period in association with any subsequent dispensing of the same contraceptive. The bill authorizes the contraceptives to be furnished over the course of the 12-month period at the discretion of the health care provider, and it prohibits an insurance carrier from imposing any restrictions or delays on, or requiring any prior authorization for, the provision of contraceptive coverage. Like the bill's provisions pertaining to insurance coverage for abortion, the bill authorizes a religious employer to request and obtain an exclusion from the bill's contraceptive coverage requirements if the required coverage conflicts with the religious employer's bona fide religious beliefs and practices. A religious employer that obtains such an exclusion will need to provide written notice thereof to covered persons and prospective covered persons, which notice is to list the contraceptive health care services that the employer refuses to cover for religious reasons. Nothing in the bill's provisions may be deemed to authorize an insurance carrier to exclude coverage for contraceptive care that is necessary to preserve the life or health of the covered person. In addition to amending the existing laws pertaining to contraceptive coverage, the bill would supplement the existing law in order to require the School Employees' Health Benefits Commission to provide coverage for contraceptives to the same extent as is required of all other insurance carriers under the bill's provisions. Existing law does not require the School Employees' Health Benefits Commission to provide coverage for contraceptives, despite the fact that all other insurance carriers are required to provide such coverage. The bill further requires the Department of Human Services (DHS) to establish and administer a program to reimburse the cost of prenatal, labor, and delivery care, as well as abortion care and contraceptives, which are provided by a hospital service corporation to individuals who can become pregnant and would be eligible for medical assistance if not for the provisions of 8 U.S.C. s.1611 or 8 U.S.C. s.1612, which provisions prohibit certain immigrants from obtaining public benefits. The reimbursement program is to incorporate any existing programs and funding streams that provide coverage or reimbursement for prenatal, labor, and delivery care received by relevant immigrants. The DHS, in collaboration with other appropriate agencies, will be required to explore any and all opportunities to obtain federal financial participation to offset the costs of implementing the reimbursement program; however, the implementation of the program will not be contingent upon the department's receipt of a waiver or other authorization from the federal government to operate a demonstration project. The bill would provide for the State Legislature to annually appropriate the amount necessary to pay the reasonable and necessary expenses of the program, which expenses are to be determined by the DHS. The bill requires both the Commissioner of Human Services and the Commissioner of Banking and Insurance to adopt rules and regulations to implement the bill's provisions. The bill additionally requires each professional licensing board operating under the authority of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety to adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act, P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), with respect to the health care professionals under each licensing board's respective jurisdiction, as may be necessary to implement the bill's provisions. The rules and regulations adopted by the Commissioner of Human Services under the bill are to include, but need not be limited to, rules and regulations permitting electronic billing for abortion services, which rules and regulations are to be promulgated by January 1, 2022. The bill specifies that it is to be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes. If any provision of the bill is deemed by a court to be inconsistent with, in conflict with, or contrary to, any other provision of law, the provision contained in the bill will prevail over the other, contradictory, provision of law, and such other provision of law is to be deemed amended, superseded, or repealed to the extent necessary to reconcile the inconsistency or conflict and ensure the law's consistency with the provisions of the bill. If any provision of the bill, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remaining provisions of the bill, and the application of the provision at issue to all other persons or circumstances, will not be affected thereby. The bill would amend the existing law pertaining to autopsies and medicolegal death investigations to eliminate the requirement that a medicolegal death investigation be conducted in a case where a fetal death occurs without medical attendance. The bill would also repeal the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1997," sections 1 through 3 of P.L.1997, c.262 (C.2A:65A-5 through C.2A:65A-7), and the "Parental Notification for Abortion Act," sections 2 through 13 of P.L.1999, c.145 (C.9:17A-1.1 through C.9:17A-1.12), each of which has been found by the New Jersey Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, void, and unenforceable. Finally, the bill would amend the law at section 1 of P.L.1999, c.145 (C.9:17A-1), which governs the consent of minors to medical treatment, in order to eliminate a cross-reference to the "Parental Notification for Abortion Act" and thereby ensure that the statutory law conforms to the existing case law in this area, which allows an unmarried, pregnant minor to give consent to the furnishing of hospital, medical, and surgical care related to her pregnancy or child, without the need to notify her parents.

Committee Categories

Linda Greenstein (D)*,  Loretta Weinberg (D)*,  Richard Codey (D),  Sandra Cunningham (D),  Vin Gopal (D),  Teresa Ruiz (D),  Troy Singleton (D),  Bob Smith (D),  Shirley Turner (D), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee (on 10/08/2020)