Fertility preservation bill continues to second committee

A bill requiring insurance companies to cover fertility preservation services for people whose disease or medical treatment could lead to infertility passed its first committee Friday.

Co-sponsor Rep. Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque) presented House Bill 95 to the House Health and Human Services Committee Friday where it passed by a party-line vote of 6-3. It now heads to the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.

HB 95 would make changes to the Health Care Purchasing Act and the New Mexico Insurance Code to ensure health insurance extends to cover egg or sperm retrieval and preservation until the person is ready to start a family. If passed, the bill would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Representatives from advocacy organizations Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Bold Futures, New Mexico Women’s Agenda and NMVC Action Fund spoke in support of the bill.

Charles Goodmacher, lobbyist for NMVC Action Fund, pointed out to committee members that fertility preservation services are already available in New Mexico, but only for those who have “the wealth to pay the enormous fees involved. So it really is an issue about equity at its core.”

Rep. Nicole Chavez (R-Albuquerque) questioned why the bill is not specific to cancer treatment, to which the sponsor and experts explained that other medical conditions and their treatment, such as sickle cell disease and advanced cases of lupus, can also impact fertility.

“Those are high-risk treatments that really pose a grave threat to future fertility,” Joyce Reinecke, executive director of the Alliance for Fertility Preservation, said to the committee. “As a matter of equity, we would just not like to have those patients, who are essentially standing in the shoes of a cancer patient, kept away from these treatments and from future parenthood. But the bulk of the patients who would need these interventions are cancer patients.”

Chavez ultimately voted against passing the bill through the committee. She said she understood the need for such insurance coverage, but worried that insurance premiums for state employees in particular would increase.