BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1951
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1951 (Gomez)
As Amended May 1, 2014
Majority vote
HEALTH 16-1 APPROPRIATIONS 13-4
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|Ayes:|Pan, Maienschein, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Ammiano, Holden, Bonilla, | |Bradford, |
| |Bonta, Ch�vez, Chesbro, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| |Gomez, Gonzalez, | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| |Roger Hern�ndez, | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| |Nazarian, Nestande, | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| |Ridley-Thomas, | | |
| |Wieckowski, Eggman | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Patterson |Nays:|Bigelow, Donnelly, Jones, |
| | | |Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Requires the State Registrar, beginning January 1,
2016, to modify birth certificates to recognize same-sex
couples, allowing for a gender neutral option on the certificate
identifying a "parent."
EXISTING LAW proscribes the duties of the State Registrar,
including, but not limited to, furnishing all forms for birth,
death, fetal death, and marriage certificates.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, cost to the Department of Public Health (DPH) to
print a year's supply of new forms, applications, and
information pamphlets of approximately $100,000.
COMMENTS : According to the author, the current practice in
completing a birth certificate limits the choices for a same-sex
couple, forcing same-sex parents to inaccurately place one of
their names in the "Father" or "Mother" field. The author
further states that this bill will allow same-sex parents to
accurately identify each parent as Mother, Father, or Parent in
check boxes, allowing for birth certificates to reflect two
mothers or two fathers, as well as a gender-neutral parent
option.
AB 1951
Page 2
In 2005, the State Registrar began allowing State Registered
Domestic Partners (SRDPs) to be added to the birth certificate
pursuant to the California Domestic Partner Rights and
Responsibilities Act of 2003, AB 205 (Goldberg), Chapter 421,
Statutes of 2003. Based on AB 205, same-sex parents in a SRDP
could add their names to the mother and father name fields. The
birth mother was asked at the time of birth if she was married
or in a state-registered domestic partnership. If the mother
replied yes, then the father's name field was opened and she
could add the name. If the mother replied no that she is not
married and/or in a SRDP, then the paternity laws (for unmarried
parents) went into effect and the parents were required to sign
paternity papers to add the father's name. These are the same
rules DPH-Vital Records currently uses to add the
father/parent's name to the birth certificate.
In 2007, the State Registrar revised the California Certificate
of Live Birth to be in compliance with AB 258 (Goldberg),
Chapter 947, Statutes of 2004, which requires all revised
state-issued forms to be gender neutral. Based on this section
of law, the father and mother name fields were updated to
include "/Parent," for example "Father/Parent" and
"Mother/Parent." Same-sex parents were then no longer required
to add a slash (/) in front of their first name on the birth
certificate. According to 2010 United States Census Bureau
statistics there are 594,000 same-sex couple households, 115,000
of which reported having a child, 90,023 of which are in
California.
Equality California, the sponsor of this bill, writes that it
will allow same-sex couples to eliminate inaccurate designations
on California birth certificates, stating that the current forms
that designate parents as just "mother" and "father," regardless
of the gender of the parent are confusing, often inaccurate, and
do not reflect the realities of modern families.
The Gay & Lesbian Center states in support of this bill that, as
it currently stands, the California birth certificate has room
to write only the names of a father and mother and this limited
option forces two mothers or two fathers to write one parent's
name in a field that does not accurately describe his or her
relationship to the child, nor does this option properly respect
same-sex relationships.
AB 1951
Page 3
The Williams Institute supports the bill and writes that it
would benefit same-sex couples and their children by ensuring
that both parents can be recognized as mothers and fathers on
their children's birth certificates, and that this change would
be consistent with the multitude of California laws that grant
equal parenting rights to same-sex co-parents.
There is no opposition on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097
FN: 0003260