26:2A-23 Findings, declarations relative to embryo storage facilities.

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. In vitro fertilization, commonly known as IVF, is an accepted and widely used method of assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART has helped an estimated six million couples in the United States who have trouble getting or maintaining a pregnancy start families.

b. In 2016, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there were approximately 267,000 IVF cycles performed in the United States, with more than five percent of those cycles occurring in New Jersey. By the end of the century, more than a million American patients who suffer from infertility will undergo IVF procedures.

c. The use of ART in the United States is not as prevalent as its use in other developed countries. In Japan, one in 20 children are born as a result of ART. In Norway the number is one in 10. As more women rise to executive positions in America's board rooms, and IVF becomes a more financially viable option because of increased health insurance coverage, ART will provide more of an opportunity for couples to preserve their fertility until they are ready to start a family.

d. IVF provides a pathway to motherhood for women who have experienced life threatening diseases, such as cancer, and the reproductive damage that is often a consequence of the treatments associated with these illnesses.

e. While technological advances in, and success rates of, IVF have increased since its inception 40 years ago, there is currently little state or federal regulation concerning the storage of embryos in embryo storage facilities .

f. In March of 2018, the failure of a storage tank at an Ohio fertility clinic caused the apparent loss of more than 4,000 frozen embryos and eggs, affecting 950 patients. Days after the storage tank failure in Ohio, a liquid nitrogen tank at an unrelated fertility clinic in California, containing thousands of eggs and embryos, malfunctioned, affecting another 400 patients.

g. It is in the best interest of the State to require that the Department of Health promulgate regulations governing the storage of human eggs, pre-embryos, and embryos in embryo storage facilities to guard against catastrophic storage system failure, such as those that occurred in California and Ohio, and the potential loss of such specimens that may result from long-term power outages during storms and other natural disasters.

L.2019, c.268, s.1.