HB 24-1459: Protections for Birthing Persons

• Prohibits use of leg shackles and waist restraints on pregnant persons during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery in correctional facilities, private prisons, and county jails under all circumstances.

• Requires staff to use only least restrictive restraints when pregnant persons are in custody, with limited exceptions for medical necessity, immediate serious safety risks, or substantial escape risk that cannot be reduced by other means.

• Mandates correctional facilities, county jails, and state department facilities develop administrative policies and systems for human milk storage to allow newborns to receive pumped breast milk from their postpartum parent.

• Requires health facilities providing labor and childbirth services to establish processes for receiving pregnant individuals from non-licensed locations and accepting information from family members, doulas, and other healthcare providers.

• Extends the "Protection of Individuals from Restraint and Seclusion Act" (Article 20, Title 26) to apply to restraints on pregnant persons during labor, delivery, and postpartum recovery in correctional and county jail settings.