New Rules Proposed to Require Explicit and Implicit Bias Education for Maternal Health Practitioners

On July 15, 2024, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with the Board of Medical Examiners (BME) announced the publication of proposed rules to require physicians who provide perinatal treatment and care and midwives who were licensed before November 1, 2021 to complete one credit of continuing education on explicit and implicit bias. The proposed rules would amend the BME’s existing rules for perinatal physicians and introduce new rules for midwives. The continuing education course will cover the following topics:

1. Previous and current unconscious biases and misinformation when providing perinatal treatment and care;
2. Environmental, personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural barriers to inclusion;
3. The effects of historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression of minority communities;
4. Cultural identity across racial, ethnic, and other marginalized groups;
5. Effective communication across racial, ethnic, religious, and gender identities;
6. Reproductive justice;
7. Power dynamics and organizational decision-making and their effects on explicit and implicit bias;
8. Inequities and disparities in the field of perinatal care; the impact of explicit and implicit bias on maternal and infant health outcomes;
9. Corrective measures to decrease explicit and implicit bias at the interpersonal and institutional levels; and
10. Findings and insights from the annual report of the New Jersey Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

All comments regarding the proposed rules are due by September 13, 2024.

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