2021 -- H 5582 | |
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LC001116 | |
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | |
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY | |
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021 | |
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A N A C T | |
RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - BORN-ALIVE INFANT PROTECTION ACT | |
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Introduced By: Representatives Perez, Hull, Vella-Wilkinson, and Place | |
Date Introduced: February 12, 2021 | |
Referred To: House Judiciary | |
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: | |
1 | SECTION 1. Title 23 of the General Laws entitled "HEALTH AND SAFETY" is hereby |
2 | amended by adding thereto the following chapter: |
3 | CHAPTER 95 |
4 | BORN-ALIVE INFANT PROTECTION ACT |
5 | 23-95-1. Short title. |
6 | This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Born-Alive Infant Protection Act." |
7 | 23-95-2. Legislative findings and purpose. |
8 | (a) The general assembly of the state of Rhode Island finds that: |
9 | (1) The state of Rhode Island has a paramount interest in protecting all human life. |
10 | (2) If an attempted abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person |
11 | for all purposes under the laws of this state. |
12 | (3) It is not an infringement on a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy for this state to |
13 | assert its interest in protecting an infant whose live birth occurred as the result of an attempted |
14 | abortion. |
15 | (4) Without proper legal protection, newly born infants who have survived attempted |
16 | abortions have been denied appropriate life-saving or life-sustaining medical care and treatment |
17 | and have been left to die. |
18 | (b) Based on the findings in subsection (a) of this section, it is the purpose of this chapter |
19 | is to: |
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1 | (1) Ensure the protection and promotion of the health and well-being of all infants born |
2 | alive in this state; and |
3 | (2) Mandate that health care providers give medically appropriate and reasonable life |
4 | saving and life-sustaining medical care and treatment to all born-alive infants. |
5 | 23-95-3. Definitions. |
6 | As used in this chapter: |
7 | (1) "Abortion" means the act of using or prescribing any instrument, medicine, drug, or |
8 | any other substance, device, or means with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable |
9 | pregnancy of a woman with knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable |
10 | likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child. Such use, prescription, or means is not an abortion |
11 | if done with the intent to: |
12 | (i) Save the life or preserve the health of the unborn child; |
13 | (ii) Remove a dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion; or |
14 | (iii) Remove an ectopic pregnancy. |
15 | (2) "Born-alive" or "live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction of an infant |
16 | from their mother, regardless of the state of gestational development, that, after expulsion or |
17 | extraction, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached, and regardless |
18 | of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean |
19 | section, or induced abortion, shows any evidence of life, including, but not limited to, one or more |
20 | of the following: |
21 | (i) Breathing; |
22 | (ii) A heartbeat; |
23 | (iii) Umbilical cord pulsation; or |
24 | (iv) Definite movement of voluntary muscles. |
25 | (3) "Consent" means the voluntary agreement or acquiescence by a person of age and with |
26 | the requisite mental capacity who is not under duress or coercion and who has knowledge or |
27 | understanding of the act or action to which they have agreed or acquiesced. |
28 | (4) "Facility" or "medical facility" means any public or private hospital, clinic, center, |
29 | medical school, medical training institution, health care facility, physician's office, infirmary, |
30 | dispensary, ambulatory surgical treatment center, or other institution or location wherein medical |
31 | care is provided to any person. |
32 | (5) "Infant" means a child of the species homo sapiens who has been completely expulsed |
33 | or extracted from their mother, regardless of the stage of gestational development, until the age of |
34 | thirty (30) days post birth. |
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1 | (6) "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine in the state of Rhode Island. |
2 | This term includes medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy. |
3 | (7) "Premature" or "preterm" means occurring prior to the thirty-seventh week of gestation. |
4 | 23-95-4. Requirements and responsibilities. |
5 | (a) A person shall not deny or deprive an infant of nourishment with the intent to cause or |
6 | allow the death of the infant for any reason, including, but not limited to: |
7 | (1) The infant was born with a handicap; |
8 | (2) The infant is not wanted by the parent(s) or guardian(s); or |
9 | (3) The infant is born alive by natural or artificial means. |
10 | (b) A person shall not deprive an infant of medically appropriate and reasonable medical |
11 | care and treatment or surgical care. |
12 | (c) The requirements of this section shall not be construed to prevent an infant's parent(s) |
13 | or guardian(s) from refusing to give consent to medical treatment or surgical care which is not |
14 | medically necessary or reasonable, including care or treatment which either: |
15 | (1) Is not necessary to save the life of the infant; |
16 | (2) Has a potential risk to the infant's life or health that outweighs the potential benefit to |
17 | the infant of the treatment or care; or |
18 | (3) Is treatment that will do no more than temporarily prolong the act of dying when death |
19 | is imminent. |
20 | (d)(1) The physician performing an abortion must take all medically appropriate and |
21 | reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of a born-alive infant. If an abortion performed in a |
22 | hospital results in a live birth, the physician attending the abortion shall provide immediate medical |
23 | care to the infant, inform the mother of the live birth, and request transfer of the infant to an on- |
24 | duty resident or emergency care physician who shall provide medically appropriate and reasonable |
25 | medical care and treatment to the infant. |
26 | (2) If an abortion performed in a facility other than a hospital results in a live birth, a |
27 | physician attending the abortion shall provide immediate medical care to the infant and call 9-1-1 |
28 | for an emergency transfer of the infant to a hospital that shall provide medically appropriate and |
29 | reasonable care and treatment to the infant. |
30 | (e) If the physician described in subsection (d) of this section is unable to perform the duties |
31 | in that subsection because they are assisting the woman on whom the abortion was performed, then |
32 | an attending physician's assistant, nurse, or other health care provider must assume the duties |
33 | outlined in subsection (d) of this section. |
34 | (f) Any born-alive infant including one born in the course of an abortion procedure shall |
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1 | be treated as a legal person under the laws of this state, with the same rights to medically appropriate |
2 | and reasonable care and treatment, and birth and death (if death occurs) certificates shall be issued |
3 | accordingly. |
4 | (g) If, before the abortion, the mother, and if married, her husband, has or have stated in |
5 | writing that she, or they, do not wish to keep the infant in the event that the abortion results in a |
6 | live birth, and this writing is not retracted before the attempted abortion, the infant, if born alive, |
7 | shall immediately upon birth become a ward of the department of children, youth and families. |
8 | (h) No person may use any born-alive infant for any type of scientific research or other |
9 | kind of experimentation except as necessary to protect or preserve the life and health of the born- |
10 | alive infant. |
11 | 23-95-5. Exceptions. |
12 | The parent(s) or guardian(s) of a born-alive infant will not be held criminally or civilly |
13 | liable for the actions of a physician, nurse, or other health care provider that are in violation of this |
14 | act and to which the parent(s) or guardian(s) did not give consent. |
15 | 23-95-6. Criminal penalties. |
16 | (a) Any physician, nurse, or other health care provider who intentionally, knowingly, or |
17 | negligently fails to provide medically appropriate and reasonable care and treatment to a born alive |
18 | infant in the course of an attempted abortion shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction shall |
19 | be subject to imprisonment for a period of up to ten (10) years, or a fine of up to twenty-five |
20 | thousand dollars ($25,000), or both. |
21 | (b) Any violation of §23-95-4(h) concerning the research use of a born-alive infant is a |
22 | felony and upon conviction shall be subject to imprisonment for a period of up to ten (10) years, or |
23 | a fine of up to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), or both. |
24 | 23-95-7. Civil and administrative action. |
25 | In addition to whatever remedies are available under the statutory or common law of this |
26 | state, failure to comply with the requirements of this chapter shall: |
27 | (1) Provide a basis for a civil action for compensatory and punitive damages. Any |
28 | conviction under this act shall be admissible in a civil suit as prima facie evidence of a failure to |
29 | provide medically appropriate and reasonable care and treatment to a born-alive infant. Any civil |
30 | action may be based on a claim that the death of or injury to the born-alive infant was a result of |
31 | simple negligence, gross negligence, wantonness, willfulness, intentional conduct, or another |
32 | violation of the legal standard of care. |
33 | (2) Provide a basis for professional disciplinary action under chapter 37 of title 5 for the |
34 | suspension or revocation of any license for physicians, licensed and registered nurses, or other |
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1 | licensed or regulated persons. Any conviction of any person for any failure to comply with the |
2 | requirements of this chapter shall result in the automatic suspension of their license for a period of |
3 | at least one year and said license shall be reinstated after that time only under such conditions as |
4 | the board of licensure and discipline shall require to ensure compliance with this chapter. |
5 | (3) Provide a basis for recovery for the parent(s) of the infant or the parent(s) or guardian(s) |
6 | of the mother, if the mother is a minor, for the wrongful death of the infant, whether or not the |
7 | infant was viable at the time the attempted abortion was performed. |
8 | 23-95-8. Construction. |
9 | (a) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal |
10 | status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to |
11 | being born-alive, as defined in this chapter. |
12 | (b) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect existing federal or state law |
13 | regarding abortion. |
14 | (c) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as creating or recognizing a right to abortion. |
15 | (d) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to alter generally accepted medical standards. |
16 | 23-95-9. Severability. |
17 | Any provision of this chapter held to be invalid or unenforceable by its terms, or as applied |
18 | to any person or circumstance, shall be construed so as to give it the maximum effect permitted by |
19 | law, unless such holding shall be one of utter invalidity or unenforceability, in which event such |
20 | provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the remainder or the application of such |
21 | provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other dissimilar circumstances. |
22 | 23-95-10. Right of intervention. |
23 | The general assembly, by joint resolution, may appoint one or more of its members, who |
24 | sponsored or cosponsored this chapter in the member's official capacity, to intervene as a matter of |
25 | right in any case in which the constitutionality of this law is challenged. |
26 | SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage. |
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LC001116 | |
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EXPLANATION | |
BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL | |
OF | |
A N A C T | |
RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - BORN-ALIVE INFANT PROTECTION ACT | |
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1 | This act would enact the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act and provide for the duties and |
2 | obligations of medical personnel in certain circumstances. |
3 | This act would take effect upon passage. |
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LC001116 | |
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