14-02.1-02.1. Printed information - Referral service

14-02.1-02.1. Printed information - Referral service 1. The department of health and human services shall publish in English, and in every other language that the department determines is the primary language of a significant number of state residents, the following easily comprehensible printed materials: a. Geographically indexed materials designed to inform the woman of public and private agencies and services available to assist a woman through pregnancy, upon childbirth, and while the child is dependent, including adoption agencies. The materials must include a comprehensive list of the agencies available, a description of the services they offer and a description of the manner, including telephone numbers, in which they might be contacted, or, at the option of the department, printed materials, including a toll-free, twenty-four-hour-a-day telephone number that may be called to obtain, orally, such a list and description of agencies in the locality of the caller and of the services they offer. The materials must state that it is unlawful for any individual to coerce a woman to undergo an abortion and that if a minor is denied financial support by the minor's parent, guardian, or custodian due to the minor's refusal to have an abortion performed, the minor is deemed to be emancipated for the purposes of eligibility for public assistance benefits, except that those benefits may not be used to obtain an abortion. The materials also must state that any physician who performs an abortion upon a woman without her informed consent may be liable to her for damages in a civil action and that the law permits adoptive parents to pay costs of prenatal care, childbirth, and neonatal care. The materials must include the following statement: There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you to carry your child to term and to assist you and your child after your child is born, whether you choose to keep your child or to place your child for adoption. The state of North Dakota strongly urges you to contact one or more of these agencies before making a final decision about abortion. The law requires that your physician or your physician's agent give you the opportunity to call agencies like these before you undergo an abortion. b. Materials, published in a booklet format, designed to inform the woman of the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child at two-week gestational increments from the time when a woman can be known to be pregnant to full term, including any relevant information on the possibility of the survival of the unborn child and color photographs of the development of an unborn child at two-week gestational increments. The descriptions must include information about brain and heart function, the presence of external members and internal organs during the applicable states of development, and any relevant information on the possibility of the unborn child's survival. The materials must be objective, nonjudgmental, and designed to convey only accurate scientific information about the unborn child at the various gestational ages. The materials required under this subsection must be reviewed, updated, and reprinted as needed. c. Materials that include information on the support obligations of the father of a child who is born alive, including the father's legal duty to support his child, which may include child support payments and health insurance, and the fact that paternity may be established by the father's signature on an acknowledgment of paternity or by court action. The printed material must also state that more information concerning paternity establishment and child support services and enforcement may be obtained by calling state public assistance agencies or human service zones. d. Materials that contain objective information describing the various surgical and drug-induced methods of abortion as well as the immediate and long-term medical risks commonly associated with each abortion method, including the risks of infection, hemorrhage, cervical or uterine perforation or rupture, danger to subsequent pregnancies, the possible increased risk of breast cancer, the possible adverse psychological effects associated with an abortion, and the medical risks associated with carrying a child to term. e. Materials including information it may be possible to reverse the effects of an abortion-inducing drug but time is of the essence. The materials must include information directing the patient where to obtain further information and assistance in locating a medical professional who can aid in the reversal of abortion-inducing drugs. f. Materials including a notice that the performance of certain abortions is prohibited by law. 2. The materials required under subsection 1 must be available at no cost from the department of health and human services upon request and in appropriate number to any person, facility, or hospital, and, except for copyrighted material, must be available on the department's internet website. The department may make the copyrighted material available on its internet website if the department pays the copyright royalties.