For Immediate Release: March 22, 2023

Media Contact: Michelle.Sherwood@sen.ca.gov

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Senator Angelique V. Ashby (D-Sacramento) announces that her request to audit California’s Fetal Death Certificate process was approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. 

“Parents should not have to wait months to bury their children,” said Senator Ashby. “The approval of this audit request will help the Legislature identify issues within the Fetal Death Certificate process, and help us provide transparency and solutions, so that in the future, parents experiencing loss do not have to endure bureaucratic hoops on top of an unfathomable tragedy.” 

Fetal death certificates have been maintained by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)—Vital Records since July 1, 1905. In California, each fetal death in which the fetus has advanced to, or beyond, the twentieth week of gestation is required to be registered with the local registrar of births and deaths in the district where the fetal death was pronounced. A Certificate of Still Birth is issued when a fetal death occurs after 20 completed weeks of gestation. A death certificate must be filed with the local registrar within eight days of death, and prior to cremation or burial. This fetal death certificate or Certificate of Still Birth must be requested in the county where the death occurred, or from CDPH.

The process to issue a fetal death certificate is nuanced, often times bouncing information back and forth from doctors, to county coroner’s offices, to funeral homes, to CDPH. Because of this, it can take weeks for each office to verify the information specific to their role in this process, and if even one small bit of information is rejected, the process starts over from scratch.

Per the CDPH, the average time to process a fetal death certificate is 6-8 weeks. While some cases take longer than 6-8 weeks, the average of 6-8 weeks is far too long when a parent is grieving the death of their child and are hoping for closure through the funeral process—which cannot start until receiving this certificate. Parents cannot bury their children without a finalized death certificate, and their baby’s body will lie in the hospital or county morgue until the certificate is finalized. The insurmountable grief, despair, and uncertainty that parents feel knowing their child lies alone while waiting for their finalized certificate only compounds their feelings of loss, and remains until their child is released.

Other states have much shorter turnaround times to receive fetal death certificates – for example, the normal processing time for a fetal death certificate in Florida is less than 1 week.

With the Committee’s approval today, the California State Auditor has been instructed to perform an audit, with audit results expected within the next year.

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About Senator Angelique V. Ashby

Senator Angelique V. Ashby represents Elk Grove, Elverta, Rio Linda and Sacramento. She is the first woman elected to represent Sacramento in the State Senate in more than 20 years. She was elected to the Sacramento City Council in 2010. She was the sole woman for more than half of her 12 year tenure and the only member in city history to serve as Vice Mayor or Mayor pro Tem for 8 years. She is a graduate of McGeorge School of Law, and earned her baccalaureate at the University of California at Davis.

For more information, visit Senator Ashby’s Website here or find her on Twitter at @SenatorAshby