A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 2.2-3705.5, 2.2-3711, as it is currently effective and as it shall become effective, and 2.2-4002 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 32.1-283.9, relating to the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Team established; penalty; report.
HB1398 establishes a new Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Team within the Code of Virginia and sets out its purpose, membership, powers, confidentiality rules, and reporting duties. The team is directed to review certain fetal and infant deaths in a systematic way, coordinate with existing child and maternal mortality review bodies to avoid duplication, and develop recommendations to reduce preventable deaths and improve supports for families, pregnant women, infants, and children. The bill excludes reviews of deaths resulting from voluntary or therapeutic termination of pregnancy and delays reviews until any law-enforcement investigation or criminal prosecution is complete.
The bill also authorizes the team to access certain records and conduct interviews, subject to consent and privacy protections, and requires closed meetings when individual fetal or infant death cases are discussed. It mandates sworn confidentiality statements for attendees of closed meetings and makes violations a Class 3 misdemeanor. The team must produce triennial statistical data and policy recommendations for the Governor, General Assembly, and Department of Health, with public reporting limited to aggregate, non-identifying information.
HB1398 amends Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act and related open-meeting provisions to add the new Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Team to the list of entities whose case-specific records and discussions are confidential. It also amends the Administrative Process Act to exempt the team’s operating procedures from APA rulemaking requirements. In addition, the bill creates a new Code section, § 32.1-283.9, that establishes the team’s structure, confidentiality protections, access to records, immunity provisions, and reporting obligations, while also updating cross-references in the open-meetings and records-exemption statutes.
The bill appears to have been treated as a public-health and child/family-safety measure, with no recorded committee debate or roll-call opposition in the provided materials. Its continuation to the next session in Finance and Appropriations suggests the proposal advanced procedurally but was not finalized in the session. Overall, the available context indicates neutral-to-supportive handling, with the main emphasis on improving mortality review and prevention efforts rather than controversy over policy direction.
The principal policy tension in HB1398 is between confidentiality and transparency. The bill creates broad protections for records, interviews, and deliberations involving fetal and infant death reviews, including closed meetings and criminal penalties for disclosure, which may concern open-government advocates. Another point of sensitivity is the scope of records access and the inclusion of family interviews and health records, though the bill limits access through consent requirements, post-investigation timing, and redaction of identifying information. The bill also carefully excludes voluntary or therapeutic terminations of pregnancy from review, which may be relevant to stakeholders focused on reproductive-health policy, but no direct opposition is reflected in the provided record.