STAND. COM. REP. NO. 499

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 350

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. 350 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE HAWAII CONSTITUTION TO PROTECT THE RIGHT TO CONTRACEPTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose an amendment to article I of the Hawaii State Constitution to protect a person's right to obtain contraceptives and engage in contraception.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from AAUW of Hawaii, Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, Rainbow Family 808, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Indivisible Hawaiʻi, Education Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, UNITE HERE Local 5, Save Medicaid Hawaii, Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center, and sixty-five individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaiʻi Christian Coalition, Hawaiʻi Family Forum, and fifty-two individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii State Constitution must support an individual's ability to make personal decisions about one's own body and medical care through the explicit protection of the right to access contraceptives and engage in contraception. Your Committee further finds that the term "contraception" generally means an action taken to prevent pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives or fertility-awareness-based methods and sterilization procedures and that the term "contraceptive" generally means any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy, whether specifically intended to prevent pregnancy or for other health needs, that is approved, cleared, authorized, or licensed under federal law. This measure will constitutionally prohibit the enactment of any law or taking of any state action that denies or interferes with a person's right to obtain contraceptives or voluntarily engage in contraception.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

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. 350, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 350, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and 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