Birth Equity

Current law prohibits the use of restraints on a pregnant person in custody with certain exceptions. The bill prohibits the use of restraints on an inmate during labor, delivery of the child, postpartum recovery while in a medical facility, or transport to or from a medical facility for childbirth, without any exceptions requires the staff of a jail, the department of corrections, or a private contract prison to comply with current law regarding the use of restraints on individuals who are in custody and experiencing labor, delivery, or postpartum recovery.

The bill also requires a correctional facility or private contract prison to develop administrative policies, including a system for human milk storage, to ensure a newborn can receive the milk that the newborn's postpartum parent has pumped for the newborn's nourishment.

The bill requires each health-care facility that provides labor and delivery services to establish a policy creating a process for the facility to receive individuals who are pregnant, undergoing physiologic birth, or in the physiologic postpartum process from locations other than licensed facilities.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)