BILL NUMBER: AB 2976 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mountjoy
FEBRUARY 24, 2006
An act to add Sections 123447 and 123448 to the Health and Safety
Code and Article 6 (commencing with Section 11199.5) to Chapter 2 of
Title 1 of Part 4 of the Penal Code, relating to child abuse.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2976, as introduced, Mountjoy Child abuse: reporting.
Existing law establishes the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting
Act, which requires specified persons who have knowledge of or
observe a child in their professional capacity or within the scope of
their employment, whom the person knows or reasonably suspects has
been the victim of child abuse or neglect to report the known or
suspected instance of child abuse or neglect to a specified agency.
This bill would create the Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and
Rape Reporting and Deterrence Act of 2006, which would require all
licensed medical personnel, including physicians and surgeons,
physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists,
and their ancillaries and assistants to report, within 24 hours of
receiving the reportable information, to a law enforcement or child
protective agency their knowledge or reasonable suspicion that a
minor has contracted a sexually transmitted disease or is pregnant.
This bill would make a person who fails to report the information
within 24 hours subject to criminal and civil penalties.
Existing law makes it unlawful for any person to use any type of
aborted product of human conception, other than fetal remains, for
any type of scientific or laboratory research or for any other kind
of experimentation or study, except to protect or preserve the life
and health of the fetus. Existing law requires that any fetal remains
used for scientific study must be promptly interred or disposed of
at the conclusion of the study.
This bill would require a physician or surgeon who performed an
abortion on a minor to collect sufficient tissue from the fetal
remains and submit the tissue to a district attorney's office for DNA
analysis to determine paternity. This bill would require the tissue
and documentation regarding chain of custody to be preserved for 4
years in case of use in a criminal proceeding.
Because this bill would create new crimes and new duties for local
officials, it would impose state-mandated local programs.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no
reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that,
if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains
costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall
be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the Child
Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Rape Reporting and Deterrence Act of
2006.
Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Rape Reporting and
Deterrence Act of 2006
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) Sexual abuse of a minor child causes grave and lasting
physical, emotional and psychological injuries to the person who
suffers this abuse and to their families, associates, and society.
(b) Victims of child sexual abuse have an increased likelihood of
becoming perpetrators of child sexual abuse and thus perpetuating the
sexual abuse of minor children.
(c) The continued sexual abuse of a minor child greatly increases
the damage to the child and therefore every reasonable effort should
be made to report the sexual abuse of a minor child so that prompt
actions may be taken to protect the child from continuing or further
sexual abuse.
(d) The physical consequences of sexual abuse of children cause
serious trauma, morbidity, and mortality to its victims, including
immediate and often irreparable bodily injuries and mutilations,
pregnancies, with subsequent births, miscarriages, or spontaneous or
induced abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases, some of which
are incurable diseases, with long term sequelae including cervical
and other cancers, and sexual and reproductive malfunctions,
including infertility, sterility, and birth defects in future
children of victims of child sexual abuse.
(e) The emotional and psychological consequences of sexual abuse
of children can be lifelong and very severe and result in prolonged
and grave social, behavioral, psychological, and sexual problems for
the victims, including difficulty in forming good relationships and
marriages, abuse of drugs and alcohol, chronic depression, and
suicide.
(f) Sexual abuse of minors is criminal conduct and must be
reported to law enforcement personnel, district attorneys, child
protection authorities, and to parents and guardians in order to
protect minors from sexual abuse and especially from the continuation
of sexual abuse.
(g) Persons who have knowledge of, or have reason to suspect that
a minor has, or is, suffering from sexual abuse and who fail to
report the sexual abuse, or their suspicion of the sexual abuse, are
aiding and abetting criminal conduct and are engaging in criminal
conduct by facilitating repeated sexual abuse of a minor child.
(h) Among the most obvious physical indications of sexual abuse of
a minor is medical knowledge or reasonable suspicion that a minor
child is suffering from a sexually transmitted disease or is
pregnant.
(i) Prompt reporting and investigation of reasonable suspicions of
sexual abuse of children, physical evidence of sexual abuse of
children, or both, are the first essential steps in protecting a
child from continuing sexual abuse and also in protecting other
children from future abuse.
(j) A study of over 46,000 pregnancies of school-age girls in
California found that 71 percent or over 33,000, were fathered by
adult men whose mean age was 22.6 years.
(k) Undercover, recorded and transcribed telephone calls made to
more than 60 Planned Parenthood Clinics in California showed that in
most cases, Planned Parenthood staff assured a caller presenting
herself as a 13 years of age impregnated by a man 22 years of age,
that Planned Parenthood would perform a secret abortion on her and
provide her with birth control and that they would not report her as
a victim of statutory rape and sexual abuse as required by California
law.
(l) Inquiries made to law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles
County found that Planned Parenthood had made almost no reports of
sexual abuse, exploitation or rape of minor children, in spite of the
fact that Planned Parenthood widely advertises to young girls that
it performs secret abortions without the knowledge or consent of a
parent. It is well known that Planned Parenthood files Medi-Cal
claims for payment of large numbers of the abortions performed on
young girls.
(m) Therefore, in order to prevent and discourage the sexual abuse
of minors, and especially to prevent and deter the continued sexual
abuse of children, it is the intent of the Legislature to require
that all licensed medical personnel, including physicians and
surgeons, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and
pharmacists, and their ancillaries and assistants promptly report to
a law enforcement agency their knowledge or reasonable suspicion that
a minor has contracted a sexually transmitted disease or is
pregnant.
SEC. 3. Article 6 (commencing with Section 11199.5) is added to
Chapter 2 of Title 1 of Part 4 of the Penal Code, to read:
Article 6. Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Rape
Reporting and Deterrence Act
11199.5. All licensed medical personnel, including physicians and
surgeons, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and
pharmacists, and their ancillaries and assistants, shall be required
to promptly report to a law enforcement or child protective agency
their knowledge or reasonable suspicion that a minor has contracted a
sexually transmitted disease or is pregnant. This reporting
obligation shall apply individually and collectively.
1119.51. (a) The report required by Section 11199.5 shall be made
within 24 hours of the time that the person required to report
becomes aware of the reportable information.
(b) The obligation to make the report required by Section 11199.5
may be satisfied by reporting to any one of the following agencies in
the jurisdiction in which the reporter or the minor resides: a
police or sheriff's department, a district attorney's office, a
county child protective service, the California Highway Patrol, or a
State Attorney General's office.
11199.52. (a) An agency receiving a report pursuant to Section
11199.51 shall communicate the report within twenty four hours to the
appropriate agency or agencies to carry out an investigation of the
report.
(b) The appropriate agency or agencies shall carry out an
investigation of the report within one week and if evidence of sexual
abuse of a minor is found, the agency shall take prompt and
appropriate actions firstly, to protect the minor child from further
sexual abuse, and secondly, to prosecute those responsible for the
sexual abuse.
11199.53. (a) Failure to comply with the reporting requirements
of Sections 11199.5 and 11199.51 is a misdemeanor punishable by
imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed six months,
a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that
imprisonment and fine.
(b) Failure of licensed medical personnel, including physicians
and surgeons, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and
pharmacists, to comply with the reporting requirements of Sections
11199.5 and 11199.51 shall be reported to the appropriate licensing
boards and shall be considered grave unprofessional conduct.
(c) A third willful failure to report and thus protect minor
children from sexual abuse and continued sexual abuse, by any person
who is required to make a report under provisions of Sections 11199.5
and 11199.51, shall be a felony punishable by imprisonment in the
state prison.
(d) Failure to comply with Sections 11199.5 and 11199.51 shall
also constitute grounds for a cause of action against the person who
failed to comply with the reporting requirements of this act for
damages suffered by a minor or the family or guardian of the minor.
11199.54. The district attorney of each county and the Attorney
General shall prepare an annual report to the Legislature on the
numbers and disposition of reports of sexual abuse of minor children
made under the provisions of this act.
SEC. 4. Section 123447 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
123447. Notwithstanding Sections 123440 and 123445, a physician
and surgeon performing an abortion on a minor shall collect
sufficient tissue from the fetal remains, as defined in Section
123440, to permit DNA testing to determine paternity and submit the
tissue to the district attorney of the county in which the abortion
is performed. The tissue shall be preserved, along with sufficient
documentation to adequately identify the tissue and establish the
chain of custody for a period of four years, and shall be made
available upon court order for the purpose of determining paternity
and establishing the guilt or innocence of the accused in any
criminal action regarding sexual crimes relating to the aborted
pregnancy.
SEC. 5. Section 123448 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
123448. No claim shall be paid by the Medi-Cal program or any
other program paid for or subsidized by the State of California for
any abortion performed on a minor child, unless the claim for payment
is accompanied by proof that the reporting requirements of the Child
Sexual Abuse, Exploitation, and Rape Reporting and Deterrence Act of
2006 have been fulfilled and that the submission of tissue from the
abortion to the appropriate district attorney has been completed as
required by the act.
SEC. 6. The provisions of this article are severable. If any
provision of this article or its application is held invalid, that
invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can
be given effect without the invalid provision or application.
SEC. 7. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for
certain costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district because, in that regard, this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
However, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains other costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of
Title 2 of the Government Code.