Sponsors (10)
The bill standardizes and expedites notification and parental choice about fetal disposition after miscarriage or stillbirth—strengthening parental rights and clarity—while imposing rapid timelines, administrative costs, and greater legal risk on health-care facilities.
Parents and families will be informed quickly (within 6 hours or by discharge) about disposition options after a miscarriage or stillbirth, enabling more timely decision-making during a traumatic event.
Hospitals, birth centers, and parents benefit from a Secretary-developed standardized notification/election form that creates a uniform process across facilities and reduces confusion and variation in practice.
Parents who timely choose burial or cremation can have facilities follow their State's fetal death disposition rules, increasing respect for parental wishes and legal consistency with state law.
Hospitals and freestanding birth centers will incur administrative burdens and implementation costs (forms, training, process changes) on a short timeline, straining resources especially for smaller or underfunded facilities.
The new federal private right of action increases legal exposure for facilities, likely raising malpractice/liability costs that could be passed on to patients, insurers, or taxpayers.
The mandated 6-hour notification timeframe may be difficult to meet in busy clinical settings or when parents are incapacitated, risking inadvertent violations or rushed, emotionally fraught decisions by grieving parents.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires hospitals and eligible birth centers to notify parents quickly about fetal disposition options and to follow timely written elections for burial or cremation; creates a federal private right of action.
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require hospitals and freestanding birth centers to notify each mother of a miscarried fetus of her rights with respect to such fetus, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 13, 2026 by Kat Cammack · Last progress May 13, 2026
Requires hospitals and freestanding birth centers that retain custody of a fetus after a miscarriage or stillbirth to notify parents promptly about disposition options and to follow parents' timely written election for burial or cremation consistent with applicable State fetal-death disposition options. Establishes a Secretary-developed form for notice and election, a 6-hour (or by discharge) notification deadline, a 72-hour window for parents to elect burial or cremation in writing, and a private right of action for violations. Takes effect 30 days after enactment and is implemented by adding the requirements to the provider agreement obligations in federal law that apply to hospitals and relevant birth centers. The measure creates compliance duties for facilities and a federal enforcement path for harmed individuals.