Should doctors be required by law to notify police immediately if they suspect a patient is the victim of domestic violence?

That question divided three physicians holding seats in the California Assembly when it came up for a vote this week.

Under current law, health care providers face misdemeanor charges if they don’t report suspected abuse to police, even if patients don’t want the police involved.

In recent years some advocates for domestic violence survivors say the mandatory reporting requirements have kept victims from seeking treatment. Advocates say victims fear that if police are called, they will get charged, their children will be taken from them or, in the case of undocumented immigrants, their families will be at risk of deportation.

“We have seen the ways in which the medical mandated reporting requirements for all violent injuries have kept survivors from seeking necessary health care in the first place, made survivors feel like they could never return to health care after they learned of the requirements, or made them feel like they could not share the reason for or the extent of certain injuries or health issues with their provider,” the bill’s author, Democratic Assemblymember Tina McKinnor of Inglewood, told the Assembly Public Safety Committee last month.

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McKinnor’s bill would require doctors and other health care providers to report to police only violence that requires treatment to save the patient’s life. In other suspected cases of abuse, if the patient doesn’t want to report the crime, the health care provider would be required to instead refer the patient to victim-advocate services. The bill still requires doctors to report suspected child and elder abuse.

McKinnor introduced a similar bill last year. It died in the state Senate after passing the Assembly. On Monday, this year’s bill barely made it through the full Assembly. A bill needs 41 votes to pass on the floor. This one had 42.

Democratic Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a former Fresno emergency room physician, was one of the 42 lawmakers, all Democrats, who voted for the bill.He told CalMatters on Thursday he voted to support the latest bill because it would require doctors to report life-threatening injuries. The previous bill, which he didn’t vote for, didn’t have that requirement.“I didn’t want to lose that, as we should focus on those who have the greatest risk to life,” he said. “And I believe that this is a good, measured approach.”

Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula speaks to another lawmaker during the Assembly floor session at the Capitol in Sacramento on May 16, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters.

The other Assembly physician to vote for the bill was Assemblymember Akilah Weber of La Mesa, an obstetrician/gynecologist. She didn’t respond to CalMatters’ interview requests.

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a family doctor from Bakersfield, was among the three Democratic Assemblymembers who voted “no,” along with 12 Republicans.

She told CalMatters Thursday she believes her fellow physicians regularly stop abuse from continuing when they make police reports. She’s worried families will suffer if doctors are no longer required to report.

“I worry about family structures,” she said. “I worry about the environment that children grow up in should perpetrators not be held accountable, because sometimes it’s that one piece that breaks open that circle of violence in homes.”

Twenty-three bipartisan members of the Assembly didn’t cast votes on McKinnor’s bill. Not voting counts the same as voting “no.”

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a Delano Democrat on the Assembly Floor during session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on July 13, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters.

As CalMatters reported, lawmakers regularly decline to vote to avoid going on record against a controversial bill.

The bill now moves to the Senate. Last year’s bill died after passing the Senate Public Safety Committee.

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