Text of ID H 509 (2020)

LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Sixty-fifth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2020 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE BILL NO. 509 BY STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE AN ACT 1 RELATING TO VITAL STATISTICS; AMENDING SECTION 39-240, IDAHO CODE, TO 2 PROVIDE LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND TO MAKE A TECHNICAL CORRECTION; AMEND- 3 ING CHAPTER 2, TITLE 39, IDAHO CODE, BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION 4 39-245A, IDAHO CODE, TO ESTABLISH PROVISIONS REGARDING CERTAIN FACTS 5 INCLUDED IN AND AMENDMENTS TO BIRTH CERTIFICATES; AND AMENDING CHAPTER 6 2, TITLE 39, IDAHO CODE, BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION 39-279, IDAHO 7 CODE, TO PROVIDE SEVERABILITY. 8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho: 9 SECTION 1. That Section 39-240, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby 10 amended to read as follows: 11 39-240. SHORT TITLE -- LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS. (1) This act shall be 12 known and may be cited as the "Idaho Vital Statistics Act." 13 (2) The legislature finds: 14 (a) As early as 1632, government officials began tracking vital statis- 15 tics, specifically births, deaths, and marriages; 16 (b) Today, state and local vital records offices record over eleven 17 million (11,000,000) vital events annually in the United States; 18 (c) Material facts included in vital records include the date of birth, 19 the individual's sex, the location of birth, the parents' identities, 20 and the date of death; 21 (d) The purpose of documenting factual information on vital records is 22 to help the government fulfill one of its most basic duties: protecting 23 the health and safety of its citizens; 24 (e) Numerous courts have recognized that the purpose of vital records 25 is to maintain an accurate database of factual information regarding 26 births, deaths, and other vital events in a given jurisdiction. See Sea 27 v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Servs., 2015 WL 5092509, at *4 (D. 28 Minn. Aug. 28, 2015) ("The public does have an interest in having accu- 29 rate records on vital statistics…"); Ampadu v. U.S. Citizenship & Immi- 30 gration Servs., Dist. Dir., 944 F. Supp. 2d 648, 655 (C.D. Ill. 2013) 31 (acknowledging "the public's interest in having accurate records on vi- 32 tal statistics"); Boiko v. Holder, 2013 WL 709047, at *2 (D. Colo. Feb. 33 26, 2013) ("[T]he government, and the public at large, would appear to 34 benefit from having the most accurate vital statistics records possi- 35 ble."); J.R. v. Utah, 261 F. Supp. 2d 1268, 1294 (D. Utah 2002) ("The 36 State also has a significant interest in the accuracy of the records it 37 keeps, particularly vital records like birth certificates."); 38 (f) According to the national research council committee on national 39 statistics, factual information contained in vital records is used to 40 help diagnose and solve problems that impact national health, including 41 tracking and diagnosing disparities in mortality rates based on age and 42 2 sex, identifying factors that account for the significant differences 1 in life expectancy between males and females, measuring and seeking so- 2 lutions to socioeconomic inequalities in health based on sex and age, 3 and studying infant death rates based on sex, location, birth weight, 4 and other information collected from vital records; 5 (g) Factual information from vital records is also necessary for na- 6 tional security. It is used to identify potential disease epidemics, 7 such as the zika virus, that may disproportionately impact one sex over 8 the other; expose covert bioterrorist attacks, such as determining 9 whether a sudden increase in certain symptoms in a population is due to 10 random chance or should be further investigated; and identify criminals 11 and terrorists, where vital records can be used to uncover fraudulently 12 obtained driver's licenses or passports; and 13 (h) Allowing individuals to alter their vital records, including birth 14 certificates, based upon subjective feelings or experiences undermines 15 the government's interest in having accurate vital records. 16 SECTION 2. That Chapter 2, Title 39, Idaho Code, be, and the same is 17 hereby amended by the addition thereto of a NEW SECTION, to be known and des- 18 ignated as Section 39-245A, Idaho Code, and to read as follows: 19 39-245A. CERTIFICATES OF BIRTH -- MATERIAL FACTS INCLUDED -- AMEND- 20 MENTS. 21 (1)(a) The legislature finds that: 22 (i) There is a compelling interest in maintaining accurate, quan- 23 titative, biology-based material facts on Idaho certificates of 24 birth that provide material facts fundamental to the performance 25 of government functions that secure the public health and safety, 26 including but not limited to identifying public health trends, 27 assessing risks, conducting criminal investigations, and helping 28 individuals determine their biological lineage, citizenship, or 29 susceptibility to genetic disorders; 30 (ii) The equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to 31 the United States constitution prohibits purposeful discrimina- 32 tion, not facially neutral laws of general applicability, such as 33 a biology-based definition of sex that has been consistently ap- 34 plied since our nation's founding; 35 (iii) Decades of court opinion have upheld the argument that bio- 36 logical distinctions between male and female are a matter of sci- 37 entific fact, and biological sex is an objectively defined cate- 38 gory that has obvious, immutable, and distinguishable character- 39 istics; 40 (iv) Identification of biological sex on a birth certificate im- 41 pacts the health and safety of all individuals. For example, the 42 society for evidence based gender medicine has declared that the 43 conflation of sex and gender in health care is alarming, subjects 44 hundreds of thousands of individuals to the risk of unintended 45 medical harm, and will greatly impede medical research; 46 (v) Vital statistics are defined in section 39-241(21), Idaho 47 Code, as data, being the plural of datum, which is a known fact; 48 3 (vi) Idaho certificates of birth are of an evidentiary character 1 and prima facie evidence of the facts recited therein, according 2 to section 39-274, Idaho Code; 3 (vii) Age and sex, unlike the names of natural parents whose rights 4 have been terminated, are legally applicable facts fundamental to 5 the performance of public and private policies and contracts; 6 (viii) The failure to maintain accurate, quantitative vital sta- 7 tistics and legal definitions upon which the government and others 8 may with confidence rely constitutes a breach of the public trust; 9 and 10 (ix) The government has a compelling interest in maintaining the 11 public trust and confidence and a duty to fulfill, to the best of 12 its ability, those functions that rely on accurate vital statis- 13 tics. 14 (b) Based on the findings in paragraph (a) of this subsection, the leg- 15 islature directs that an Idaho certificate of birth shall document spe- 16 cific quantitative, material facts at the time of birth, as provided in 17 subsection (2) of this section. 18 (2) Any certificate of birth issued under the provisions of this chap- 19 ter shall include the following quantitative statistics and material facts 20 specific to that birth: time of birth, date of birth, sex, birth weight, 21 birth length, and place of birth. 22 (3) For purposes of this chapter, "sex" means the immutable biological 23 and physiological characteristics, specifically the chromosomes and inter- 24 nal and external reproductive anatomy, genetically determined at conception 25 and generally recognizable at birth, that define an individual as male or fe- 26 male. 27 (4) The quantitative statistics and material facts identified in sub- 28 section (2) of this section may be amended within one (1) year of the filing 29 of the certificate by submitting to the registrar a notarized affidavit of 30 correction that: 31 (a) Is on a form prescribed by the registrar; 32 (b) Is signed by: 33 (i) The parents identified on the certificate of birth; or 34 (ii) The child's legal guardian; 35 (c) Is signed by the physician or other person in attendance who pro- 36 vided the medical information and certified to the facts of birth; and 37 (d) Declares that the information contained on the certificate of birth 38 incorrectly represents a material fact at the time of birth. 39 After one (1) year, the quantitative statistics and material facts 40 identified in subsection (2) of this section may be challenged in court only 41 on the basis of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact, with the burden of 42 proof upon the party challenging the acknowledgment. 43 (5) In those instances in which an individual suffers from a physiolog- 44 ical disorder of sexual development and the individual's biological sex can- 45 not be recognized at birth as male or female based upon externally observable 46 reproductive anatomy, the physician shall make a presumptive determination 47 of the individual's sex, which may thereafter be amended based on the appro- 48 priate combination of genetic analysis and evaluation of the individual's 49 4 naturally occurring internal and external reproductive anatomy as provided 1 in section (4) of this section. 2 (6) Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, a 3 hospital may correct a birth certificate for a clerical or data entry error 4 at any time by submitting a notarized affidavit on a form specified by the 5 registrar with any appropriate supporting documentation. 6 SECTION 3. That Chapter 2, Title 39, Idaho Code, be, and the same is 7 hereby amended by the addition thereto of a NEW SECTION, to be known and des- 8 ignated as Section 39-279, Idaho Code, and to read as follows: 9 39-279. SEVERABILITY. The provisions of this chapter are hereby de- 10 clared to be severable, and if any provision of this chapter or the applica- 11 tion of such provision to any person or circumstance is declared invalid for 12 any reason, such declaration shall not affect the validity of the remaining 13 portions of this chapter. 14