Bill > A2517

Introduced Session

This bill would permit courts to include in domestic violence protection orders a provision indicating that, when a victim is pregnant, the provisions of the protection order will apply to the victim's child immediately upon birth. Such a provision would only apply after the child is born; nothing in the bill is intended to establish a right of personhood in an unborn fetus. This bill is based in part on the holding in B.C. v. T.G., 430 N.J. Super. 455 (Ch. Div. 2013), in which the Family Part of the Chancery Division of the Superior Court held that, when a victim is pregnant, the court may order that any protections ordered under the "Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 1991," P.L.1991, c.261 (C.2C:25-17 et seq.), will apply to the victim's child upon the birth of the child. The court, noting that the protections in a domestic violence restraining order apply to the victim's immediate family, stated that "there is little sense in requiring the victim to have to return to court again immediately after the birth of the child for an emergent hearing in order to add the baby to her final restraining order." Id. at 466. The court additionally noted that, for various reasons, "a new parent may be either unable or unwilling to immediately return to domestic violence court immediately following childbirth." Id. at 467.

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Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Women and Children Committee (on 02/03/2020)