STAND. COM. REP. NO. 531

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 715

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 715 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VITAL STATISTICS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Health to issue a certificate of stillbirth upon request of the parent or parents named on a fetal death certificate issued in a case of a stillbirth; and

(2) Appropriate funds for the Department of Health to modify the fetal death reporting system, certificate ordering system, and retaining of personnel necessary to implement this measure.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Elizabeth Kahanu Hawaiian Civic Club; Moku o Manokalanipō, The Kauaʻi Council of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates - Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee finds that the loss of a baby due to stillbirth remains a sad reality for many families and can take a serious toll on a family's health and well-being. A certificate acknowledging a stillbirth can be a meaningful part of the grieving and healing process.

Your Committee has heard the concerns raised in testimony by the Department of Health, that this measure creates a new vital record that may conflict with existing statutes and may create unintended consequences relating to reproductive health and access to abortions. Your Committee appreciates these concerns and believes that an appropriate alternative would be to authorize the Department of Health to issue a commemorative certificate, which has no legal standing and would not conflict with the United States Standard of Certificates of Birth, Death, and Fetal Death.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting its substantive contents requiring the issuance of certificates of stillbirth and appropriating funds, and inserting language that:

(A) Authorizes the Department of Health to issue commemorative certificates of stillbirth, subject to certain conditions;

(B) Establishes an unspecified amount of fees for commemorative certificates of stillbirth, to be deposited into the Vital Statistics Improvement Special Fund;

(C) Specifies that a commemorative certificate of stillbirth shall not be prima facie evidence of facts and has no valid legal standing as a bona fide government record and requires a disclaimer on the back of the commemorative certificate indicating the same; and

(D) Amends the purpose of the Vital Statistics Improvement Special Fund to accept fees remitted from issuance of commemorative certificates of stillbirth;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 715, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 715, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair