STAND. COM. REP. NO. 274

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1246

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1246 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to direct the Department of Health to purchase and store a one year supply of mifepristone by working with one or more pharmacies in the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council, AAUW of Hawaii, Indivisible Hawaii, Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Hawaiʻi Section, and twenty-seven individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from twenty-six individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Hawaiʻi Affiliate of American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Your Committee finds that it is the policy of this State that the rights of equality, liberty, and privacy guaranteed under article I, sections 3, 5, and 6, of the Hawaii State Constitution are fundamental rights and that those rights include an individual's right to make reproductive health care decisions about one's own body and to decide whether to bear a child or obtain an abortion. Your Committee further finds that two medications are commonly used for abortion: misoprostol and mifepristone; and that the United States Food and Drug Administration may change approved indications for these medications and the mifepristone supply chain may suffer temporary disruption. This measure ensures a stockpile medication required to facilitate maintaining the status quo on reproductive rights in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $75,000 for the purchase of a one-year supply of mifepristone.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1246, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1246, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

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JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair