The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) has withdrawn its controversial 502-page proposal following public and political backlash.
The proposal, published August 8, called for the expansion of the circumstances under which the department can implement “disease control measures” and broaden its authority to investigate diseases, infections, and other “conditions.”
Proposed regulations include allowing health officials to enter a wide range of locations without a warrant during their investigations, including homes and schools.
“The department or local health authority may enter an apartment, building, health care facility, school, college or university, or other location as necessary to conduct its investigation under this chapter if the representative presents documentation to establish that they are an authorized representative of the department or the local health authority,” the proposal states.
Adding to the controversy, the proposal called for the removal of terms such as “pregnant woman” and “mother” from the state’s health code. Under the proposed changes, “pregnant woman” becomes “pregnant individual”, “mother of a newborn” becomes “postpartum individual”, so on and so forth.
The document received thousands of comments since mid-August. The DOH released the following statement Friday:
The Department of Health received a historically high volume of feedback during the public comment period and it is clear additional stakeholder input is needed. In order to incorporate that feedback, the Department has made the decision to withdraw the proposed updates to the Chapter 27 regulations. The Department plans to file revised language once Pennsylvanians’ feedback has been adequately incorporated into the draft regulations.
According to CBS21, a spokesperson for Governor Shapiro said that he did not personally propose the updated regulations, and that any misconstruing of the changes to scare Pennsylvanians would be “inaccurate and disingenuous.”
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