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Committee of Conference reaches agreement on HB 712-FN changes to restrict nonmedical breast surgery for minors, add abortion-statistics reporting and QA rules,
Summary
Committee of Conference conferees negotiated multiple changes to HB 712-FN: prohibiting most nonmedical breast surgeries on minors but preserving medical and reconstructive exceptions, aligning a private right of action with prior statute, adjusting reporting enforcement, and delaying abortion-statistics reporting until funding available.
Conferees on House Bill 712-FN reached a broad agreement on multiple contested provisions: the bill would limit breast surgeries for minors except where medically necessary or reconstructive; the committee agreed to align a civil private right of action with language used in House Bill 619; the parties resolved changes to abortion-statistics reporting by amending (rather than fully repealing and reenacting) the existing statutory section; and they negotiated enforcement language and penalties for reporting violations. The groups also agreed to delay the start date for collecting abortion statistics until July 1, 2027, to allow the Department of Health and Human Services time to obtain funding for the estimated $1 million implementation cost.
On the core prohibition, conferees accepted amended language intended to limit the bill’s coverage to nonmedical procedures while preserving exceptions for operations that are "physiologically necessary" or reconstructive in nature. A conferee proposed language defining "physiologically necessary" to mean interventions essential for maintaining or restoring normal physiological function, preventing life-threatening conditions, or ensuring survival. Senate and house conferees indicated they could accept the narrower wording.
On abortion reporting, one conferee asked the committee to avoid repealing and reenacting RSA 329:49 (the statute cited in conference discussion) outright; instead the two sides agreed to amend the statute and retain the clarification that nothing in the section should be construed as creating or recognizing a right to abortion. The conferees also discussed enforcement mechanisms used by other states and proposed administrative fines; the final compromise recorded in caucus notes and later recitation kept an administrative enforcement approach with a $100 per-business-day penalty for noncompliance in initial drafts, rather than creating new criminal penalties.
The residential-care quality-assurance provision (an amendment added in the senate draft) remained a point of negotiation: the senate conferees argued for a mandatory ("shall") requirement for quality-assurance programs, saying the Department of Health and Human Services requested it; house conferees preferred permissive ("may") language. In the final account the senate caucus maintained the "shall" language, citing DHHS support.
Conferees said the remainder of the act would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and the abortion-statistics reporting section would be delayed to July 1, 2027 to allow legislative appropriation. After confirming the agreements in writing, conferees said they would ask the Legislative Service Office to prepare the conference draft and would place the bill on the house consent calendar if the house conferees raised no objection.
