Requires midwives and physicians to provide pregnant women information on birthing options prior to delivery.

The obligation to provide birthing options information is now limited to certified nurse midwives or physicians who 'provide prenatal maternity care to a pregnant patient' and specifically to 'each pregnant patient in the midwife's or physician's care,' rather than any obstetric practitioner providing it to any pregnant patient.

The list of birthing options changed from 'including, but not limited to' (illustrative) to 'shall include' (exhaustive), meaning providers are no longer required to go beyond the listed options. The specific phrasing 'planned hospital birth induced with Pitocin or an epidural' was split into 'planned hospital induced births' and 'epidural births' as separate items.

The phrase 'as determined by the Department of Health in consultation with midwives and physicians' was removed from the timing requirement for when information must be provided prior to labor onset, leaving the timing less clearly defined.

The annual requirement that individual certified nurse midwives or physicians provide evidence-based education on birthing options to patients was eliminated entirely.

A new duty was placed on the Commissioner of Health to develop, in consultation with certified nurse midwives and physicians, the evidence-based information on birthing options to be provided to pregnant patients, and to take reasonable steps to ensure the information is provided in a language the patient can understand.

The insurance coverage language changed from 'are covered by the patient's health insurance carrier' to 'may be covered by a patient's health insurance carrier,' softening the certainty of the statement about coverage.