The Informed Consent Act
The Informed Consent Act (A109B/S320B) is a New York State racial and reproductive justice bill that would require healthcare providers to obtain written and verbal informed consent from perinatal people before drug testing or screening them or their newborns.
To provide TRUE and ROBUST informed consent, legislation MUST require healthcare providers to:
1. Obtain informed consent before drug testing and/or verbally drug screening BOTH perinatal people AND their newborns.
2. Obtain informed consent BOTH verbally AND in writing. *
3. Advise the perinatal person of the MEDICAL REASON for the drug test or verbal drug screen to be performed on them or their newborn.
4. Advise the perinatal person of the possible RISKS and consequences of a positive drug test or verbal drug screen.
*Note: In hospital settings, the Informed Consent Act requires healthcare providers to obtain verbal and written informed consent for both drug tests and verbal drug screens. In non-hospital clinical settings, the Informed Consent Act requires healthcare providers to obtain verbal informed and written informed consent for drug tests, but only requires verbal informed consent for verbal drug screens.
Our Stories Matter.
“Those first moments after my son was born felt so still. I held him close and kissed his little hands and feet.
Later on, a nurse came in and placed a clear bag over my son’s scrotum. I assumed this was a normal part of newborn care, but I later learned they had used his urine to perform a drug test.
When it came time for me to leave the hospital, I was told that I would not be allowed to take my son home with me. Mere days after giving birth, I was forced to leave my son in the hospital alone.”
Desseray Wright
Organizer, Lived Expert, & Policy Advocate
“The hospital asked me to consent to a variety of things at an especially vulnerable time. The conditions felt entirely coercive.
Disoriented from giving blood, barely able to read the packet, I unknowingly signed a form giving permission for the hospital to drug test me and perform a C-section, a procedure that Black pregnant people undergo at the highest rates in the U.S.
The hospital didn’t allow me to take the papers home to read them or have a nurse interpret them for me. If I wanted to receive prenatal care, I had to sign them on the spot.
Consent signed under coercion—without necessary time and information—is NOT informed consent.”
Ericka Brewington
Organizer, Lived Expert, & Parent Advocate
“The Informed Consent Act is important to me because it’s important to my patients, families, and communities. It is the first step that we can take to begin to undo the harm caused by the health care system and ensure that pregnant and postpartum people are treated with respect."
Erinma Ukoha, MD, MPH
Maternal-Fetal Medicine
The Informed Consent Act is one step towards racial and reproductive justice.
The Informed Consent Act is one step in the fight for a world grounded in racial and reproductive justice for all families. In order to build a world where the dignity and integrity of all families is supported, we must end the surveillance and criminalization of perinatal people who use substances.
