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Introduced 3/22. The bill, among other things, provides protection to persons incarcerated while pregnant. It is set for a judiciary committee hearing on 4/22/21.
The bill requires insurance carriers to offer malpractice insurance to cover care during the entire course of a vaginal birth after a caesarian birth. It extends the statute of limitations from 2-3 years for actions that allege lack of informed consent. Repeals language that gives no force and effect to an advance directive while a fetus is viable. It prohibits the use of restraints on a pregnant person while incarcerated and It requires the annual reporting to the legislature on the circumstances of the use of restraints on a pregnant person during labor, the record of which is held for 5 years, as well as the number of births in the previous year.
The bill requires respectful treatment of pregnant person while incarcerated in all state run facilities, and requires policies and the training of staff in the areas which, in part include: perinatal care, health foods, counseling and treatment of mental health and substance abuse isssues, excercise, HIV, pregnancy loss and sexual abuse. Policies also will be developed for after delivery, such as, enhanced visitation to create bonding with child, breastfeeding and parenting skills. When leaving incarceration, the person is connected with community based resources.
The Colorado civil rights commission is authorized to receive reports alleging maternity care which is not culturally congruent and does not maintain a persons dignity, privacy or freedom from harm.
Health facilities are required to allow a doula in addition to a partner to attend the birth, allow newborns to remain with families to facilitate the physiologic postpartum process, facilities will not interrupt the physiologic birth without informed consent.
The LWV supports legislation that promotes justice and prison reform, especially changes regarding health and mental health care for the incarcerated. It also supports reproductive rights. However, after discussion within the LWV legislative action committee, we cannot fully support the bill in its current form. The League does fully support the sections of the bill that specifically deal with the rights and care of pregnant persons while incarcerated, as well as providing postpartum services after incareration. However, the wide range of other issues not dealing with incarceration contained within the bill require further monitoring by the League.
A more narrowly tailored bill might ensure broader support in the legislature. Sections of the bill centered around complicated issues, such as medical directives, medical malpractice insurance and the creation of rights extending beyond facilities of incarceration and into all health care facilities are not clearly enough defined. Until amendments to the bill are proposed in committee, a monitoring of the the bill is a more appropriate postion to take.
On April 22, 2021 the Judiciary committee held a hearing on the bill. Senator Buckner stated that the bill was an offshoot of a 2019 bill regarding infant mortality and there has been a working group for the past year and a reaching out to stakeholders to discuss the bill. There is a growing consensus that freedom from discrimination, mistreatment and harm to pregnant women causes poor birth outcomes and that 1 in 6 pregnant women report mistreatment. There is a high mortality rate among families of color and especially indigenous people. Several midwives testified about the unfair treatment their patients receive when transferred from home to hospital during labor. County Sheriffs of Colorado testified that many of the parts regarding prenatal care are already in place in the jail system. They had objections regarding the supplying of counseling due to budget and staff issues. Amendments were made to the bill to address this issue.
Most of the issues raised on the bill centered around the medical directive section of the bill. The ACLU and a doctor who represents the organization, Democrats for Life of Colorado testified. Based on concerns regarding this part of the bill, it passed out of committee 3-2 on a party line vote. It will go on to the appropriations committee at which time the bill sponsors will continue to amend the portions which are objected to by medical facilities, who stand in support of the bill on the assumption of amendments being made to address their concerns. We will continue our current position to monitor the bill as it goes to second reading to see what amendments are made prior to changing our positon to support. As of 4/30/21 the bill was referred amended to the approriations committee. The bill has a fiscal note of $198,998.
On May 7, 2021 this bill went before the approriations committee and passed out of the committee on a partisan 4-3 vote. The primary objection is with respect to the medical directive regarding the life of the fetus. An amendment will be forthcoming from one of the senators opposing the bill with respect to this specific language in the bill. The LWV changed its position to support after that hearing.
The bill passed second reading on 5/11/21 with a propsed amendment from Sen. Gardner regarding the section on advance directives. He wanted that part removed. His amendment did not pass. On 5/12/21 the bill passed third reading with Senator Gardner again expessing his desire to exclude the repeal of the denial of advance directive to women who have a viable fetus. On that basis he objected to the bill. He felt the rest of the bill had many good things in it. Senator Buckner stated at the hearing that a woman should have a right to make that decision. The bill passed on a 21 yes to 14 no vote. It is a strict party line vote. The only lobbying group opposing its passage is the Catholic Archdiocese.
On 5/18/21 house judiciary committee heard the bill CCRD is now comfortable with the bill. The part on advanced directives still was an issue with some of the house members saying there was not enough nuances on this issue in the bill.
There was testimony on the part of the bill regarding insurance and how women end up with cesarean births by default. Testimony on the bill was that 1-6 persons stated mistreatment during their birth experience for women of color its 1-3. Amendments were introduced on the issue of malpractice policies after gathering info from insurance providers. That amendment passed and was supported by COPIC. This bill will help midwives get liabilty insurance. Three total amendments passed and on a vote of 7-4 the bill passed will move to the appropriations committee. On 5/24/21 the bill passed the house approriations committee and referred amended to house committee of the whole.
On May 27, 2021 the second reading of the bill took place in the house. Several amendments were introduced-one to change the name of the bill to reflect that only women can give birth and another to not allow the reversal of the advanced directive to occur. Neither passed. The bill passed second reading on 5/27/21. On 5/28/21 passed third reading with amendments. On 6/10/21 signed by senate president on 6/11/21 signed by house president and sent to the governor to sign.
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