New Jersey A 3189: Prohibits annual bonuses for perfect attendance and the non-use of sick leave.

Bill Text

A3189 

ASSEMBLY, No. 3189 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman JAY WEBBER

District 26 (Morris and Passaic)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman DiMaio

SYNOPSIS

���� Prohibits wrongful life and wrongful birth suits.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative 
Counsel.

��

An Act concerning certain civil actions and 
supplementing Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� a.�� Wrongful birth.� There 
shall be no cause of action or award of damages on behalf of any person based 
on a claim that, but for an act or omission of the defendant, a person once 
conceived would not or should not have been born. 

���� b.��� Wrongful life.� There 
shall be no cause of action or award of damages on behalf of any person based 
on a claim of that person that, but for an act or omission of the defendant, 
the person would not have been conceived or, once conceived, would not or 
should not have been born.

���� c.���� Nothing contained in 
this section shall be construed to provide a defense against any proceeding 
charging a health care provider with intentional misrepresentation.

���� The provisions of this section 
do not prohibit a cause of action or the awarding of damages, except as 
specifically provided in this section, by or on behalf of any person based on 
the claim that a person is liable for injury caused by such person's willful 
acts or caused by such person's want of ordinary care or skill.

���� 2.��� This act shall take 
effect immediately and apply to any action accrued on or following the 
effective date. 

STATEMENT

���� This bill prohibits causes of 
action for wrongful life and birth lawsuits. It is modeled principally after Pennsylvania�s statute. Eight other states have similar laws. The lawsuits prohibited by 
this bill violate the tenets of traditional tort law. For example, in 
traditional tort law, in order for one to be liable for the injuries of 
another, one�s actions actually must cause the injuries. But in wrongful birth 
and life suits, the defendants have not caused any harm to the unborn child. 
Tort claims also require damages commensurate with the injury suffered. These 
lawsuits raise the unanswerable question of how to compare the value of a life 
with a disability to the alternative�never having lived at all.

���� By freeing healthcare 
providers from liability for wrongful life and birth suits, this bill seeks to 
improve the doctor-patient relationship. With this reform, physicians and 
others will feel less pressure to practice �defensive medicine� to avoid accusations 
of malpractice. Patients will be free from subtle coercion to end a pregnancy 
coming from a doctor or geneticist anxious to remove the potential for a 
lawsuit. The bill also addresses lawsuits that increase medical malpractice 
insurance rates, adding greatly to the overall cost of healthcare.� This is 
especially true in the field of obstetrics.� The high cost of malpractice 
coverage has led to a shortage of obstetricians in New Jersey, denying many 
pregnant women accessible and affordable care.

���� This bill does not remove 
liability for a healthcare provider who makes an intentional misrepresentation 
or causes a traditional injury by their willful act or want of ordinary care or 
skill.

���� Another goal of this bill is 
to affirm the dignity and value of the lives of the disabled and the commitment 
of their parents. Wrongful birth and life suits marginalize and stigmatize the 
disabled by communicating the message to all disabled people that their 
differences make their lives not worth living�that they would be better off 
dead. Worse, in an unseemly spectacle they put parents in the position of 
testifying to that effect in open court about their own children, who will 
either hear these sentiments or later read them in a record that will endure. 
This bill would instead communicate and enshrine the principle that no person 
can ever be considered a legal harm.