BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1951|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1951
Author: Gomez (D), et al.
Amended: 8/12/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/17/14
AYES: Jackson, Corbett, Lara, Leno, Monning, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 53-14, 5/8/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Vital records: birth certificates
SOURCE : Equality California
DIGEST : This bill requires the State Registrar of Vital
Statistics to modify the certificate of live birth to contain
two lines that both read Name of Parent and contain, next to
each parents name, three checkboxes with the options of
"mother," "father," and "parent," and makes the relevant statute
gender neutral where appropriate. This bill also requires that
all local registrars, deputy registrars, and sub-registrars use
the modified certificate of live birth, update all forms to
incorporate the modification, and discard all forms in use
before the modification. This bill provides that these
provisions become operative on January 1, 2016.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
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1.Provides the duties of the State Registrar including
furnishing all forms for birth, death, fetal death, and
marriage certificates.
2.Requires information, including the following, to be included
in the certificate of live birth:
Full name and sex of the child;
Date and place of birth, as specified;
The name, birthplace, and birthdate of the mother and
father; and
Name, title and address of attending physician.
1.Requires specified social and medical information, including
the following, to be on the certificate of live birth,
provided that the information is kept confidential and is
clearly labeled "Confidential Information for Public Health
Use Only:"
Birth weight;
Pregnancy history, as specified;
Race and ethnicity of the mother and father;
Education level of mother and father;
Mother's and father's occupations; and
Principal source of payment for prenatal care.
1.Provides that if a parent objects to furnishing information
about his or her race, ethnicity, occupation, or the hearing
screen results for his or her infant, that information is not
required to be entered on that portion of the certificate of
live birth.
This bill:
1.Revises and recasts the required information for the live
certificate of birth to make the requirements gender neutral
where appropriate.
2.Requires the Department of Vital Statistics to modify the
certificate of live birth to do both of the following with
regard to identification of the parents:
Contain two lines that both read "name of parent;" and
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Contain, next to each parent's name, three checkboxes to
choose from with the following options to describe the
parent's relationship to the child: (1) mother; (2) father;
and (3) parent.
1.Requires all local registrars, deputy registrars, and
sub-registrars to update forms to incorporate the above
modifications and to discard all forms previously in use.
2.Delays the operative date on #2 and #3 above until January 1,
2016.
3.Allows parents to amend their current birth certificate if
this bill becomes operative.
4.Specifies that an informant (usually a hospital birth clerk)
verify that the parent relationship information provided is
accurate.
5.Makes technical and conforming changes.
Background
A birth certificate has always contained private personal
information that is unique to the person who owns the
certificate. For example, a birth certificate issued in
California in the late 1960's indicates the name and sex of the
newborn; whether the child was a single birth or one of multiple
births; the date and hour of birth; the city and county of
birth; the name, state of birth, and age of the mother; the
name, state of birth, and age of the father; and, in the "second
half" of the certificate, other health, social and medical
information provided by the person filling out the form and by
the attending doctor. The second section of information is kept
confidential and is accessed only for "public health use." The
information required to be contained in a certificate is revised
by the State Registrar based on recommendations by the Vital
Statistics Advisory Committee every ten years.
The information gathered from certificates of live birth is used
to identify emerging health concerns and trends and to provide
measures of health status that are used at the local, state, and
federal levels. The information gathered also provides
significant empirical medical and social data for government and
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policy-makers.
The birth certificate also names the child's parent or parents.
When a child is born to a male and female couple, the birth
certificate poses no problems because they may write their names
in the provided "mother" and "father" name fields. Children
born to same sex couples, however, cannot accurately identify
themselves or each parent's relationship to the child. AB 205
(Goldberg, Chapter 421, Statutes of 2003) established the
California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act
which gave equal consideration to birth mothers with
state-registered domestic partners. Then in 2007, the State
Registrar revised the Certificate of Live Birth to be in
compliance with AB 2580 (Goldberg, Chapter 947, Statutes of
2004) which required all revised state-issued forms to be gender
neutral. As a result, the "father" and "mother" name fields
were revised to include "parent," so that the fields read:
"mother/parent" and "father/parent."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/8/14)
Equality California (source)
American Academy of Pediatrics, California
American Civil Liberties Union
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
API Equality - LA
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
California Coalition for Youth
California Communities United Institute
California Psychological Association
City and County of San Francisco
City of Berkeley
City of Los Angeles
City of West Hollywood
Courage Campaign
Edwin Lee, Mayor of San Francisco
Eric Garcetti, Mayor, City of Los Angeles
Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the State Bar
Gay & Lesbian Center
Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County
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Glover-Silva Foster Family Home
Growing Generations
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
LGBT Community Center of the Desert
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
National Center for Lesbian Rights
Our Family Coalition
Planned Parenthood of California
Sacramento LGBT Community Center
Steve Hansen, Sacramento City Councilmember, District Four
Stonewall Democratic Club
The Williams Institute
Transgender Law Center
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/8/14)
Pacific Justice Institute
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to Equality California:
Birth certificates establish real rights and
responsibilities for all parents and children. The
recognition of legal parenthood gives a child the right of
support from his or her parents as well as access to health
insurance, benefits, and inheritance rights. Birth
certificates are also widely used as identity documents for
numerous purposes, including proving age, obtaining other
forms of government identification, and demonstrating
eligibility for employment.
Current birth certificates in California designate the
parent(s) of a child as "mother/parent" and
"father/parent." Some counties in California still use
remaining copies of older birth certificate forms that
designate parents as just "mother" and "father," regardless
of the gender(s) of the parent(s). These designations are
confusing, often inaccurate, and do not reflect the
realities of modern families.
AB 1951 would require the Department of Public Health to
modify birth certificates to allow parents to
self-designate as "father," "mother," or "parent." This
would make it possible for birth certificates to reflect
accurately families with two mothers and two fathers, as
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well as creating a gender-neutral "parent" option.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : In opposition, the Pacific Justice
Institute argues that this bill advances neither parental nor
constitutional rights. The Pacific Justice Institute writes, "
We urge you to reconsider the effects that this redefinition of
family and state-sanctioned self-identification of parents will
have on all Californians?"
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 53-14, 5/8/14
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta,
Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez,
Chesbro, Cooley, Dababneh, Daly, Dickinson, Fong, Frazier,
Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande,
Pan, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Skinner,
Stone, Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A.
Pérez
NOES: Bigelow, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Grove, Hagman, Jones,
Logue, Melendez, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Salas, Wagner,
Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Achadjian, Allen, Conway, Dahle, Eggman, Fox,
Gorell, Harkey, Linder, Mansoor, V. Manuel Pérez, Waldron,
Vacancy
AL:nl 8/12/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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