2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

2025 · Regular session · House bill

HB37

Everly's Law requires covered hospitals to make bereavement counseling options and any available bereavement device available after an intrauterine fetal death, newborn death or stillbirth.

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Official caption: Relating to perinatal bereavement care provided by certain hospitals, a perinatal bereavement care initiative, and a perinatal bereavement care hospital recognition program.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists House author(s): Plesa, Oliverson, Leach, Orr, Campos. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.

Bill highlights

Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.

Everly's Law requires covered hospitals to make bereavement counseling options and any available bereavement device available after an intrauterine fetal death, newborn death or stillbirth.
The support must be available to parents and family members for a period equal to the hospital stay a medical professional recommends for a birth.
The Department of State Health Services must establish a statewide initiative to improve access and quality.

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What does it do?

Everly’s Law requires covered hospitals to make bereavement counseling options and any available bereavement device available after an intrauterine fetal death, newborn death or stillbirth. The requirement applies to hospitals with a state maternal level-of-care designation, including qualifying teaching hospitals—not every health-care facility. Governor Abbott signed HB37 May 28, 2025; it took effect September 1, 2025. Final law; official history.

The support must be available to parents and family members for a period equal to the hospital stay a medical professional recommends for a birth. A “perinatal bereavement device” uses technology to delay deterioration of tissue for bereavement purposes for up to 72 hours. The 72 hours describe the device’s capability, not a guaranteed three-day hospital stay. The final law says “any available” device; it does not require every covered hospital to purchase one. Nor does it create an express insurance-payment or free-care guarantee. Although the law defines bereavement care by reference to a prenatal diagnosis of a life-limiting fetal condition, its hospital-service provision expressly applies following the listed deaths. Chapter 328 definitions and hospital duty.

The Department of State Health Services must establish a statewide initiative to improve access and quality. It may provide respectful-care training, devices, staff instruction and maintenance support, other needed resources, and grants using available money. In allocating resources, it must prioritize hospitals lacking a device, treating more high-risk maternal patients and delivering more babies. Gifts, grants and donations may supplement funding. The Health and Human Services Commission’s executive commissioner, working with the Perinatal Advisory Council, must create a recognition program and criteria for hospitals that train personnel in bereavement care. Rulemaking is authorized, not made a prerequisite to the law’s effective date. Final law, Sections 2–4.

What changed along the way?

The filed bill used “perinatal palliative care,” required a cooling device, and proposed a grant program. The House substitute changed the focus and terminology to bereavement care, used the “any available” device limitation, specified the medically recommended availability period, put the initiative under the Department of State Health Services, and allowed broader resources as well as grants. It also changed the advisory partner to the Perinatal Advisory Council and made implementation rulemaking discretionary. Those distinctions matter: the original requirement to supply a device is not the final wording. Filed text; House substitute.

The index lists two House amendments, both adopted April 23 and retained in the law. Plesa’s amendment named the act Everly’s Law in honor of Everly Grace Talman. Leo Wilson’s amendment added teaching hospitals meeting the Education Code definition, while leaving the maternal-designation requirement intact. The House-passed, Senate committee and enrolled versions otherwise have no substantive difference; no Senate amendment or conference version is listed. Amendment index; Plesa amendment; Leo Wilson amendment; House-passed text; Senate text.

For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.

Official bill versions

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?

Bereaved parents and families could receive more consistent, considerate support and, where a device is available, additional time with their baby. Hospitals may receive training, equipment or grants, but must organize the required access and staff practices. Neither actual hospital participation nor improved family outcomes is established by this statutory review.

The latest posted fiscal note anticipated no significant state or local fiscal impact, assuming administrative costs could be absorbed, while acknowledging additional staff resources for full implementation. Crucially, it excluded grant awards from its cost analysis. The separate enacted budget appropriated $2.5 million in each of fiscal 2026 and 2027—$5 million total—to implement HB37; the governor did not veto that rider. Thus “no significant fiscal impact” does not mean no public money was appropriated. The earlier filed-version estimate of $485,998 over 2026–27 was for a different administrative design, not the final grant budget. Latest fiscal note; filed-version fiscal note; SB1, Article IX Section 18.04, PDF page 1003; veto proclamation.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.