HB 1147 Fails!

This week, HB 1147 failed in the North Dakota State Legislature. This was a bill that we opposed and we cannot thank you enough for your continued engagement on these critical issues this session. Every legislative session, critical life issues are heard in front of our state legislature and public input on those issues is so important to making sure our values are represented in Bismarck.

In case you missed it, here is a summary of the bill that was defeated:

HB 1147 relates to public employees covered by self-insurance and the payment of fertility treatments if they are diagnosed as inferitile. This legislation allows for practices approved by a licensed physician to achieve a pregnancy that results in a live birth with healthy outcomes (as stated more than once throughout the bill's text). Because of the wording of this bill, there is no protection against "selective reduction," also known as "reduction abortions." This is the practice of reducing the number of fetuses in a multiple pregnancy, such as twins or triplets. The procedure is most commonly done to reduce the number of fetuses in a multiple pregnancy to a "safe" number.

Now that we are halfway through session, bills will cross over to the other respective chambers.

Next week we will be providing a crossover update and let you know all of the bills we will be following for the second half of session!