House sends bathroom-access bill to Senate
The Arkansas House approved a bill Tuesday that aims to expand access to private bathrooms for people with certain medical conditions.
House Bill 1334 by Rep. Tara Shephard, D-Little Rock, is intended to allow anyone with a “medical condition that requires immediate access to a toilet facility” to use employee restrooms at certain retail businesses. The 63-14 vote in the House sends the bill to the Senate for further consideration.
The legislation specifically includes anyone with “Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, any other inflammatory bowel disease, or irritable bowel syndrome.” Shephard said she filed the bill to help people with these conditions avoid having embarrassing accidents in public.
Shephard noted her son has Crohn’s disease and that “Crohn’s is something that has had a major impact on my life, my family’s life and it has a major impact on others’ lives.”
Some lawmakers opposed the legislation during an earlier meeting, pointing to how it would create additional requirements for private businesses.
“Many have had conversations with me that I have valued … in regards to this should not be something that we should have to legislate and individuals can do the right thing, but it is simply not happening,” Shephard said when presenting the bill to the House.
Shephard pointed to at least one instance where a person with a medical condition covered by her bill had to buy an item from a business before being able to use the employee facility.
The bill would require a customer to present evidence of their eligible medical condition when requesting to use employee restrooms. The forms of evidence allowed by the bill include a copy of a statement signed by a healthcare provider or an identification card from a nationally recognized health organization.
Customers may only request to use toilets during normal business hours, and the business must have at least three employees working at the time of the request.
During a House committee meeting last week, Rep. Justin Gonzales, R-Okolona objected to how the bill would affect businesses.
“I’m torn on this. I think it’s a great idea, but ultimately where I land on this is that we’re interfering on private property rights,” Gonzales said. “We’re legislating what should be common decency.”
Rep. Josh Miller, R-Heber Springs, also opposed the requirements the bill would place on private businesses and said “that no matter how hard we try, we’re never going to be able to legislate morality and decency.”
Gonzales and Miller were among the lawmakers who voted against the bill on the House floor.
Rep. Scott Richardson, R-Bentonville, voiced support for the bill during the committee meeting, saying he viewed the measure as similar to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
When speaking in favor of the bill during committee, Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock, said he recognized his colleagues wanted to avoid infringing on the rights of citizens but noted “we do it every day, every time we pass a bill up here we’re practically doing it.”
Businesses are not required to provide access to employee restrooms if public restrooms are immediately available or if the employee facilities are located in an area that could create an “obvious health risk or safety risk to the customer or an obvious security risk to the retail establishment.”
A customer who uses an employee restroom under the bill must leave the facility in “the same condition” as they found it. The bill does not apply to filling or service stations with a structure of 800 square feet or less that has an employee toilet facility located within the structure.
A business is not required to make any physical changes to employee facilities under the bill. Retail establishments would not be civilly liable for any act or omission in allowing a customer to use an employee facility if the act or omission is not willfully or grossly negligent, occurs in an area of the retail establishment that is not accessible to the public and results “in an injury to or death of the customer or any individual other than an employee accompanying the customer.”