In the 2025 Hawaiʻi State legislative session, lawmakers introduced two bills in the House as potential replacements for the 2019 Midwifery Law (HRS §457J): HB 1194 and HB1328, both relating to midwives.  

Last year, a hui of legal organizations, including Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (“NHLC”), represented maternal caregivers and Native Hawaiian traditional birthing practitioners in challenging the 2019 law in Kahoʻohanohano v. State of Hawaiʻi. The complaint alleged, among other things, that the law unconstitutionally regulated traditional and customary Native Hawaiian birthing practices. The legal team successfully obtained a preliminary injunction from the Courts, barring the State from enforcing the law against Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners pending resolution of the case. The case is set for trial in January 2026. The Court’s order recognized that the law provided no viable pathway for Native Hawaiian practitioners to continue their traditional practices, contrary to the affirmative duty placed on the State to protect Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices under Article XII Section 7 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution.

This time, as lawmakers consider new legislation, the State must ensure Native Hawaiian traditional and customary birthing practices are adequately protected as the constitution requires. NHLC has submitted testimony opposing HB1194, which burdens practitioners with an ambiguous, complicated, and onerous regulatory scheme. NHLC also submitted testimony in support of HB1328’s clear exemption for Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practitioners from midwifery rules eliminating the threat of civil and criminal penalties against them. The exemption proposed in HB1328 directly addresses the concerns raised by the Native Hawaiian traditional practitioners in Kahoʻohanohano v. State, which would ensure that traditional practitioners can continue serving their communities.

HB1194 and HB1328 are scheduled to be heard by the House Committees on Health and Consumer Protection & Commerce on Monday, February 10, 2025 at 2:00PM. The Joint Hearing can be viewed here.

NHLC testimony submitted in opposition to HB1194 is available here.  

NHLC testimony submitted in relation to HB1328 is available here.