Committee hears bill to remove pregnancy exclusion from state advance directive model form

House Bill 1215, which would remove a pregnancy exclusion clause from Washington's statutory model advanced health care directive, received a public hearing before the Law & Justice Committee March 17.

Ryan Giannini, staff counsel to the committee, told members the bill would "remove references to pregnancy from the model directive form under the Natural Death Act." He explained an advanced health care directive expresses a person's preferences about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment and that the current statutory model form contains a provision that voids the directive if the signer is pregnant and a physician knows of the pregnancy.

Representative Jamila Taylor, prime sponsor, said the bill "is marrying the statute with the model forms" and would give people more options so forms better match current law rather than implying the model language is mandatory. Proponents at the hearing said the model form's pregnancy exclusion has real-world effects because attorneys and members of the public commonly use and rely on the statutory template.

Nancy Sapero, testifying for Cedar River Clinics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and End of Life Washington, urged support, saying the exclusion "voids the advanced health care directive of a pregnant woman regardless of the stage of pregnancy" and that "everyone should be able to decide what care they want and what care they don't want, even if they are pregnant." Yvette Magaña (Legal Voice) and Sarah Ainsworth (If/When/How) described litigation in other states and said removing the clause from the model form would prevent the template from effectively becoming a default that restricts choices.

Teresa Schrampp, a voter who testified in opposition, said removing the pregnancy reference "effectively provid[es] that the unborn child will die along with the mother" unless the signer specifically adds an option to preserve the pregnancy, and urged members to vote no. Committee members asked whether signers can already strike the pregnancy sentence from the model form; witnesses responded that the statute does not require the clause but that the model's text functions as a de facto default in practice.

Giannini said a fiscal note has been requested. Chair Dhingra closed the public hearing; committee staff recorded submissions and sign-in tallies in the hearing record. No committee action or vote on the bill occurred during the hearing.

The committee indicated the session record will include the written testimony and that staff would supply the model form and related materials on request.