Celeste Rodriguez

Existing law states that it is the intent of the Legislature to maintain an ongoing program of birth defects monitoring statewide, and requires the State Public Health Officer to maintain a system for the collection of information related to birth defects, as specified. Existing law requires the officer to require general acute care hospitals and physician-owned or physician-operated clinics that regularly provide services for the diagnosis or treatment of birth defects, genetic counseling, or prenatal diagnostic services to make available to the department the medical records of children suspected or diagnosed as having birth defects, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to enter into a contract for the establishment and implementation of the birth defects monitoring program.

This bill would state that it is additionally the intent of the Legislature to enable and maintain an ongoing program to monitor conditions, as defined, that occur during the 12-month period after an individual's birth statewide. The bill would authorize a local health officer to maintain a system for the collection of specified information within the local health jurisdiction related to birth defects and conditions. The bill would authorize a local health officer to require providers and laboratories, as specified, in addition to the facilities listed above, within the local health jurisdiction to either make available or to transmit to the local health department information related to birth defects and conditions, as specified. The bill would authorize a local health officer to enter into contracts for implementation of programs to collect information regarding, and to monitor, birth defects and conditions in their jurisdiction.

Existing law limits access to confidential information related to birth defects to authorized program staff and persons with a valid scientific interest, as specified, and prohibits that information from being admissible, disclosed, discoverable, or compelled to be produced in any civil, criminal, administrative, or other proceeding, as specified. Existing law provides that, except as otherwise provided by statute, all relevant evidence is admissible. The California Constitution provides for the Right to Truth-In-Evidence, which requires a 23 vote of the Legislature to exclude any relevant evidence from any criminal proceeding, as specified.

This bill would expand the scope of the confidentiality provisions described above to include additional conditions, thereby prohibiting the use of additional information in criminal proceedings. Because that prohibition would affect the admissibility of relevant evidence in criminal proceedings, the bill would require a 23 vote of the Legislature.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to collect and store any umbilical cord blood samples it receives from hospitals for storage and research and states the intent of the Legislature that pregnancy blood samples be stored and made available to any researcher who is approved by the department for specified purposes.

This bill would exempt umbilical cord and pregnancy blood samples collected under the supervision of a local health officer in a local health jurisdiction for the purpose of monitoring birth defects or conditions or for other purposes from the provisions described above.