Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2506 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to abolish the reproductive rights protection committee and provide for a list of advisors to assist the family court as needed on sterilization issues.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, and the Disability and Communication Access Board.

Your Committees find that it is appropriate to abolish the reproductive rights committee that was established in 1986 because it no longer serves its purpose. Your Committee understands that in the past eight years only one case was reviewed and the committee has no staff or budget.

Your Committees further find that protection of developmentally disabled individuals would not be affected by eliminating the committee. The underlying protections remain in the statutes. By maintaining a resource list of advisors to assist the family court as needed, the original intent of the Reproductive Rights Protection Committee is preserved in a more appropriate manner.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2506 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.