Arkansas adds emergency medical services providers to newborn surrender law

Arkansas Act 163 of the 2026 fiscal session adds qualifying emergency medical services providers to provisions governing the voluntary delivery of a newborn. Approved May 1, 2026, the act states that it is effective July 1, 2026. The changes appear within a larger Department of Health appropriation act.

For these provisions, the act defines an emergency medical services provider as a licensed entity or individual providing emergency medical services, including an ambulance service provider, that is staffed 24 hours a day. The amended statute includes such a provider among the entities required to take possession without a court order of a child 30 days old or younger when a parent leaves the child without expressing an intent to return, subject to the statute's conditions.

The act also adds emergency medical services providers to provisions concerning newborn safety devices, care, confidentiality and protective custody. An appropriate employee of the provider is included among those directed to take a delivered child into protective custody for 72 hours, and a provider employee is included among those directed to notify the Division of Children and Family Services immediately.

A related amendment includes delivery to an emergency medical services provider in the stated affirmative defense to a prosecution for first-degree endangerment of a minor. The existing provision limits the defense to the act of delivery and does not make it a defense to abuse or neglect committed before delivery. The detailed statutory requirements and exceptions govern any particular situation.