Bill Text: NJ AR122 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Condemns Alabama Supreme Court ruling in LePage v. Mobile Infirmary Clinic, P.C. and pending federal legislation, H.R.431; reaffirms freedom of access and protection of reproductive health care services in New Jersey, including IVF.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Passed) 2024-03-18 - Filed with Secretary of State [AR122 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2024-AR122-Amended.html

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[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION No. 122

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED MARCH 7, 2024

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  LISA SWAIN

District 38 (Bergen)

Assemblywoman  GARNET R. HALL

District 28 (Essex and Union)

Assemblywoman  JESSICA RAMIREZ

District 32 (Hudson)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Condemns Alabama Supreme Court ruling in LePage v. Mobile Infirmary Clinic, P.C. and pending federal legislation, H.R.431; reaffirms freedom of access and protection of reproductive health care services in New Jersey, including in vitro fertilization.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Assembly State and Local Government Committee on March 11, 2024, with amendments.

  

An Assembly Resolution condemning Alabama court ruling and federal legislation threatening reproductive assistance services and reaffirming New Jersey citizens' freedom to access reproductive health care services, including in vitro fertilization.

 

Whereas, In the United States, one in six people of childbearing age struggle with infertility and require some type of professional assistance in order to conceive a child; and

Whereas, Fortunately, 90 percent of infertility cases are treatable with medical therapies including drug treatment, surgery, and in vitro fertilization (IVF); and

Whereas, IVF is a process whereby an egg is removed from a person's body and combined with sperm inside a laboratory for fertilization; the fertilized egg, called an embryo, is then transferred into the uterus; and

Whereas, In a recent decision, LePage v. Mobile Infirmary Clinic, P.C., the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos are "extrauterine children," and that the state's "'Wrongful Death of A Minor Act' applies on its face to all unborn children, without limitation;" and

¹[Whereas, This holding could have widespread implications for anyone in Alabama who seeks, or provides, IVF; and

Whereas, The LePage ruling threatens the rights of Alabamians who are planning to have children; endangers fertility clinics that provide IVF services and facilities that have embryos stored; and endangers the overall future of family planning in the state; and]¹

Whereas, Along with Alabama's strict ban on abortions, in assigning personhood to embryos outside of the human body, this ruling means for many Alabamians that it is the state, not the person, who can decide whether they can become pregnant; and

¹Whereas, The LePage holding had immediate widespread implications for anyone in Alabama who seeks, or provides, IVF, resulting in the closure of IVF clinics and halting of IVF services; and

Whereas, Following the LePage holding, on March 6, 2024, Governor Kay Ellen Ivey of Alabama signed into law S.B.159 to ensure criminal and civil immunity for those administering or receiving IVF services; however, this enactment fails to address the core issue of the LePage ruling, that embryos are to be interpreted as extrauterine children; and

Whereas, Notwithstanding this new enactment, the LePage ruling continues to threaten the rights of Alabamians who are planning to have children, and endangers the overall future of family planning in the state; and

Whereas, On March 7, 2024, Iowa House Republicans advanced legislation, H.F.2575, that would make it a felony to "cause the death" of an "unborn person," which would threaten the imposition of criminal penalties for with those who seek and provide IVF services in that state; and¹

Whereas, Furthermore, with the support of over 120 of his colleagues from the Republican party, West Virginia Congressman Alexander X. Mooney introduced federal legislation, H.R. 431, in January 2024 to implement equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for the right to life of each "born and preborn human person"; and

Whereas, Pursuant to H.R. 431, the terms "human person" and "human being" include "each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being"; and

Whereas, Following the LePage decision, a number of Republican senators joined the Democrats in criticizing the ruling, and expressed their support for IVF; and

Whereas, Tammy Duckworth, a Democratic Senator from Illinois who utilized IVF to conceive her two children, introduced S.3612 in order to protect the rights of individuals to seek reproductive assistance, such as IVF, and the physicians who provide these services, without the fear of prosecution; and

Whereas, Senator Duckworth urged her Republican colleagues, as many initially denounced the LePage ruling for the harmful precedent that the decision has set on reproductive assistance services, to join the Democrats' efforts to protect access to IVF by unanimously passing S.3612; and

Whereas, Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi blocked the unanimous passage of the bill by objecting to Senator Duckworth's request; and

Whereas, New Jersey has long been a state that supports, and provides protections for, the reproductive freedom of its citizens, including the right to make the deeply personal choice of whether to start or expand a family through IVF; and

Whereas, When the United States Supreme Court's issued its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., which overturned Roe v. Wade, the country faced fear and uncertainty around key reproductive rights issues; and

Whereas, A number of states that criminalized reproductive health care access following Dobbs took action to interfere with a person's access to reproductive health care, in jurisdictions where it remained legal; and

Whereas, Following the Dobbs decision, the United States Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed rule designed to protect those seeking access to reproductive healthcare out-of-state when such access was criminalized following the ruling; and

Whereas, In response to the proposed rule change, nearly 20 state Attorneys General signed on to a letter opposing the rule change in order to ensure access by the Attorneys General to private health information "for a criminal, civil, or administrative investigation into or proceeding against any person in connection with seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care ... outside of the state where the investigation or proceeding is authorized" and "is lawful in the state where it is provided" in order to prosecute these individuals; and

Whereas, Actions, such as those of the Attorneys General who joined in opposing the rule change, are designed to prevent individuals and providers from seeking and providing lawful reproductive health care services by instilling fear through the threat of prosecution; and

Whereas, In stark contrast to actions taken in states to monitor private health information, the New Jersey legislature has acted to protect private medical information from prosecutors in other states, to ensure New Jersey law enforcement will not take part in extraditions to people who have sought reproductive health care that is legal in New Jersey, and to require the creation of a website so people who are confused about recent court decisions know what their freedoms are on reproductive health decisions in New Jersey; and

Whereas, Legislation enacted in January 2020 mandates health benefits coverage for fertility preservation services under certain health insurance plans; and

Whereas, In January 2024, legislation was enacted to make fertility services more accessible and affordable by requiring certain private sector health insurers which are regulated by the State to provide coverage for any services related to infertility including, but not limited to, different types of IVF and embryo transfers; and

Whereas, It is in the public interest of the citizens of the State and this great nation to condemn, in the strongest terms, any ruling or state or federal legislative enactment that infringes on citizens' rights to exercise their reproductive freedom or their ability to access reproductive health care, including IVF; now, therefore,

 

     Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.  This resolution condemns the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, in LePage v. Mobile Infirmary Clinic, P.C., that embryos are "extrauterine children"; and condemns federal pending legislation H.R. 431, to implement equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for the right to life of each "born and preborn human person" beginning at the moment of fertilization or cloning.

 

     2.  The resolution further condemns the threat the LePage ruling and H.R. 431 pose to in vitro fertilization (IVF), and the fear and uncertainly concerning reproductive freedom that the ruling and pending legislation create for the citizens of Alabama and the United States. 

 

     3.    In addition, the resolution reaffirms the New Jersey Legislature's commitment to protecting its citizens' reproductive freedom and full access to reproductive health care, including IVF.

 

     4.    Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to each member of Congress elected from this State, the New Jersey Commissioner of Health, and the Attorney General of the State of New Jersey.