STAND. COM. REP. NO. 115

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1167

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1167 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO PROTECT INDIVIDUAL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose a constitutional amendment to protect an individual's reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, including the right to abortion and contraceptives.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawai‘i Civil Rights Commission, Americans for Democratic Action Hawai‘i, Hawaii Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Community Alliance on Prisons, Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Friends of Civil Rights, Pride at Work – Hawai‘i, Save Medicaid Hawaii, Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and forty individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Family Forum; Americans United for Life; Roman Catholic Church in the State of Hawaii, Diocese of Honolulu; and thirteen individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that Hawai‘i has a long history of recognizing the importance of access to abortion care and protecting this access is widely supported. While Hawai‘i has been a long-time leader in reproductive health care rights, the landscape in the rest of the country is rapidly changing. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, 597 U.S. (2022), decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2022 that overturned almost fifty years of a national constitutional right to abortion, several states have passed laws banning or highly restricting access to abortion. Amending the Hawaii State Constitution is the strongest and most lasting way to ensure individual reproductive rights in Hawai‘i. This measure will protect access to safe reproductive health care services for women in Hawai‘i.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that no law shall be enacted, nor any state action taken, that denies or interferes with an individual's reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, including the fundamental right to abortion and contraceptives; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1167, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1167, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair