BILL NUMBER: S8705
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to prohibiting unreg-
ulated pregnancy centers from requiring clients to disclose certain
information as a condition of service
 
PURPOSE:
To ensure client privacy and information security for clients of unregu-
lated pregnancy centers.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Enacts a new Public Health Law article 25-C, Right to Digni-
fied Care Act, including:
2599-ff: States legislative intent.
2599-gg: Defines "unregulated pregnancy center" (UPC)
2599-hh: Establishes prohibited intake questions, including that UPCs
shall not make it a condition of service, or reasonably appear to be a
condition of service, that a client must disclose certain information
including medication history, sexual history, information regarding the
potential baby's non-gestational parent, and information about health
insurance or public benefits beyond the extent necessary to bill such
programs if the UPC offers billable services.
2599-ii: Authorizes the attorney general or county district attorneys to
take actions to restrain any violations of this article.
Section two. Effective date, 90 days after it shall have become a law.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Unregulated pregnancy centers (UPCs) are non-medical facilities that
provide determinations of pregnancy or pregnancy counseling but do not
provide or refer for a full range of reproductive care services. There
are a little under 100 UPCs in New York State as of 2025, about half of
which provide ultrasounds while half provide no medical services whatso-
ever.
Although they are not medical facilities, UPCs have been widely docu-
mented to require clients to fill out medical-looking intake forms.
Combined with office structures like waiting rooms and exam rooms, these
forms create an illusion of the confidentiality clients would expect at
a doctor's office or community clinic. These intake forms frequently ask
medical questions, such as prescription drug history, as well as inva-
sive personal questions that would not even be appropriate in most
medical settings, such as name of and client's relationship to the
potential baby's father. 1
As non-medical facilities, UPCs are not regulated by the state nor
governed by State or Federal health information privacy protections.
UPCs have been documented to frequently share sensitive client informa-
tion with third party organizations dedicated to political advocacy
rather than health care, and in some cases even claim to be federally
HIPAA-complient when they are not. 2
In response, this bill provides important consumer protections against
invasive questionnaires that collect and share clients' private informa-
tion. UPCs could still ask basic required intake information such as
patient contact info, but would no longer be permitted to collect sensi-
tive personal information under the guise of healthcare provision.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill, 2026.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATION:
None to the state
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
90 days.
1 Crisis pregnancy center's forms give rare insight into anti-abortion
practices
2 Addressing The HIPAA Blind Spot For Crisis Pregnancy Centers I Health
Affairs