Legislation Details:

UPDATE: 1/3/2024 - A6761 carried over and was referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 1/3/2024.

A6761 was introduced and referred to the Assembly Health Committee on 5/8/2023. It is sponsored by Assemblymember Karines Reyes. 

S8352 was introduced and referred to the Senate Health Committee on 1/19/2024. It is sponsored by Senator Rachel May. 

A6761 and S8352 remove parental rights for all medical and vaccination decisions by allowing minors to give consent to treatment and invasive life altering interventions on their own without the consent or knowledge of their parents. Furthermore, these bills prohibit parents and guardians from having access to certain medical records, unless the child grants them access. A6761 and S8352 also require these procedures to be covered by insurance. This bill is part of a larger parental rights bill. 

A6761 and S8352 amend several areas of existing code, to allow minors to give consent to treatment, including vaccinations, and to prohibit parents from accessing their child's medical records without the child's permission, summarized as follows:

SECTION 1. of A6761 and S8352 amends Subdivision 5. of Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 25, Title 1, Section 2504, related to the enabling of certain persons to consent for certain medical, dental, health, and hospital services, to allow a child who gives consent for their medical, dental, health, and hospital services, to also give consent for their own vaccinations without the consent of anyone else being required.

SECTION 1. of A6761 and S8352 also amends Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 25, Title 1, Section 2504, related to the enabling of certain persons to consent for certain medical, dental, health, and hospital services, to add a new section of code numbered Subdivision 8. that allows any person, including a minor, who comprehends the need for, the nature of, and the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits involved in any medical, dental, health, or hospital services to give consent to such services for themself without the consent of anyone else being required. 

SECTION 5. of A6761 and S8352 amend Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 23, Title 1, Section 2305, related to sexually transmitted diseases, treatment by a licensed physician or staff physician of a hospital, and prescriptions, to add new language to Subdivision 2. that allows a health care practitioner to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for a person under the age of 21 without the consent or knowledge of a parent if the individual may give consent pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter which says they can consent as long as they can comprehend the nature of the procedure and the risks associated with the procedure. Existing law only allows the health care practitioner to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for a person under the age of 21 without the consent or knowledge of a parent if the individual is infected with a sexually transmitted disease or has been exposed to infection with a sexually transmitted disease. This new language may open the door for a health care practitioner to treat or prescribe an HPV or Hepatitis b vaccine as a preventative measure if the individual can consent to the procedure pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter.  

SECTION 10. of A6761 and S8352 amends parts of Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 1, Title 2, Section 17, related to the release of medical records, to prohibit a treating physician or hospital from releasing or in any way making available to the parent or guardian of an infant child any medical, dental, health, or hospital services that such infant patient has consented to themself pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter. Additionally, any infant patient who may give consent pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter may request the release of their own records without needing the request of any other person. 

SECTION 11. of A6761 and S8352 amends Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 1, Title 2, Section 18, related to access to patient information, to add new language to Subdivision 3, Paragraph (c) that prohibits a health care provider from disclosing information about any medical, dental, health, or hospital services that an infant has consented to themself to the infant's parent or guardian without the infant patient's authorization. An infant may consent to disclose their information to their parent or guardian generally or in an emergency or they may refuse consent altogether. An infant patient who may give consent to medical, dental, health, or hospital services pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter may also give consent to release their patient information to any person. 

SECTION 13. of A6761 and S8352 amends several parts of Insurance Code Chapter 28, Article 32, Section 3244, related to the explanation of benefits forms relating to claims under certain accident and health insurance policies, to add a new Subsection (f) that does the following, summarized as follows:

(f) (1) require insurers to provide confidentiality for an insured that consents to their own medical, dental, health, and hospital services. 

(A) requires insurers to allow an insured who consents to their own medical, dental, health, or hospital services pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter to choose a method of receiving explanation of benefit forms containing information relating to the receipt of specific services the insured consented to and prohibits the insurer from sending duplicative explanation of benefit forms to non-specified recipients, including the insured's parents or guardians. 

(B) prohibits the insurer from identifying the diagnosis or services rendered in an explanation of benefits or in any online portal that allows subscribers to access information if such services were consented to pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter.  

(f) (2) requires the Department of Health to develop and make available a standardized form for an insured to use to request confidential communications that must be accepted by all insurers. 

SECTION 14. of A6761 and S8352 amends Public Health Code Chapter 45, Article 21, Title 6, Section 2168, related to the statewide immunization information system, to prohibit any vaccination record printed for a registrant's parent, guardian, or other person in a custodial relation to such registrant from including information about any vaccine the registrant consented to themself pursuant to Section 2504 of this Chapter. 

Upon passage, A6761 and S8352 will take effect on the 180th day after becoming a law. 

NVIC OPPOSES A6761 and S8352 because they endanger the safety of children in New York and strip parents of their ability to provide informed consent to vaccination for their children by allowing children to consent to vaccination without the knowledge or consent of their parent or guardian and by prohibiting parents from accessing their child's medical records. These bills even prevent a parent from accessing an explanation of benefits to see what services were covered and rendered to their child by the insurance they pay for as the child's parent or guardian. This not only allows a child to consent to a potentially risky medical procedure, such as vaccination, without their parent's knowledge but it also forces the insurance companies and health care providers to operate in secrecy and withhold potentially life-altering information from the child's parent. NVIC supports informed consent to vaccination and parental rights to be in control of the vaccination decisions for their children. Children can be easily coerced into medical procedures and vaccinations without full knowledge of their medical history and all the possible consequences that may follow. A parent knows what is best for their child and is knowledgeable of their child's medical history and their family medical history. Vaccines, just like all pharmaceutical products, can cause injury and even death. As of April 1, 2024, the United States Government has paid out more than $5 billion dollars to vaccine victims through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). As of 3/29/2024, There were 47,649 deaths and 2,596,902 adverse events reported to the US government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. NVIC does not take a position on the rest of the bill's provisions that are unrelated to vaccines.

https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&term=2023&bn=A6761 - text, status, and history of A6761 

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S8352 - text, status, and history of S8352