New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and his city's Human Rights Commission released a new series of guidelines Friday that prohibit bars and other establishments from refusing to serve pregnant women alcohol.

Before Friday there was no express city prohibition against establishments refusing to serve a pregnant woman alcohol or raw fish, and even from barring pregnant women from their their premises.

The guidelines, unveiled by the mayor and Human Rights Commissioner Carmelyn Malalis, define what constitutes a violation of city's existing human rights law.

"Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions," the guidelines read.

Explicitly named as examples of violations were "a restaurant policy that prohibits staff from serving pregnant individuals raw fish or alcohol" and "a bouncer [denying] a pregnant individual entrance to a bar based on the belief that pregnant

individuals should not be going to bars and/or drinking alcohol."

Though federal health officials advise total abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy, and many studies have shown that alcohol abuse can harm the fetus, some studies have found that light alcohol use during pregnancy has no negative effect on the child.