(a) The local registrar of births and deaths of the county in which a fetal death, in which the fetus has advanced beyond the 20th week of uterogestation, is registered, shall issue, upon the request of the mother or father of the fetus, a Certificate of Still Birth, on a form approved by the State Registrar of Vital Statistics for each naturally occurring intrauterine fetal death after a gestational age of not less than 20 completed weeks.
(b) A Certificate of Still Birth issued pursuant to subdivision (a) shall, except as otherwise set forth in this section, comply with all of the format requirements governing a certificate for a live birth contained in Article 2 (commencing with Section 102425). The Certificate of Still Birth shall be in addition to and shall not replace the fetal death certificate issued pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 102950).
(c) The request for a Certificate of Still Birth shall be on a form prescribed by the State Registrar of Vital Statistics.
(d) The Certificate of Still Birth shall be on a form prescribed by the State Registrar of Vital Statistics and shall only contain the following information taken from the fetal death certificate:
(1) The date of the stillbirth.
(2) The county in which the stillbirth occurred.
(3) The name of and sex of the stillborn fetus, as provided on the original or amended fetal death certificate.
(4) The time and place of stillbirth, including the street address and city, and, if applicable, the name of the hospital.
(5) The names, date of birth, and state of birth of the mother and father.
(6) The corresponding file number of the final fetal death certificate.
(7) A title at the top of the Certificate of Still Birth that reads: Certificate of Still Birth.
(8) A statement at the bottom of the Certificate of Still Birth that states: This Certificate of Still Birth is not proof of a live birth.
(e) The State Registrar of Vital Statistics shall not use the information included on a Certificate of Still Birth for any governmental purpose other than to respond to the request for the certificate from the persons identified in subdivision (a).
(f) The State Registrar of Vital Statistics may charge an appropriate fee for processing and issuing a Certificate of Still Birth. The fee shall cover, but shall not exceed, the entity’s full cost of providing the certificate. During the 2007–08 fiscal year, the fee shall not exceed twenty dollars ($20), thereafter, the fee may be adjusted annually pursuant to Section 100430. The local registrar of births and deaths may charge an appropriate fee for the processing and issuing of a Certificate of Live Birth, not to exceed the entity’s full cost of providing the certificate.
(g) The State Registrar of Vital Statistics shall issue a Certificate of Still Birth upon request regardless of the date on which the certificate of fetal death was issued.
(h) This section shall not be used to establish, bring, or support a civil cause of action seeking damages against any person or entity for bodily injury, personal injury, or wrongful death for a stillbirth.
(i) For the purposes of this section, “stillbirth” as recorded in the Certificate of Still Birth means the delivery of a fetus where there was a naturally occurring intrauterine fetal death after a gestational age of not less than 20 completed weeks.
(j) This section shall not supercede any other provision of law. The terms and conditions contained in this section shall only apply to this section, and shall not affect the definition, use, meaning, or intent of those terms as they may appear in any other statute, California case law, or the California Constitution. Other than prescribing the right to request a Certificate of Still Birth, nothing in this section shall be construed to create any new right, privilege, or entitlement, or to abrogate any existing right, privilege, or entitlement.
(k) Through its courts, statutes, and under its Constitution, California law protects a woman’s right to reproductive privacy, and it is the intent of the Legislature to reaffirm these protections in accordance with the California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Belous (1969) 71 Cal.2d 954, 966-968.
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 661, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2008.)