March 1, 2002

To: California Members of AAPS

Your action to oppose the Emergency Health Powers Act (California Assembly Bill AB 1763) is needed immediately. This bill addressing bioterrorism is overbroad and intrusive. It is also unnecessary because current laws are adequate. This dangerous piece of legislation has been assigned to two Assembly policy committees.

Please write immediately, so that your letters arrive before AB 1763 goes to the first committee hearing. Letters should be on your own professional letterhead.

ACTION: Write or fax, in the following order of priority, the chairman of both committees, the committee consultants, the author (these names are in bold print on the enclosed list); and then the members who are on the Assembly Health Committee and the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee where AB 1763 will be heard.

To enable us to ensure that the committees list everyone who opposes AB 1763, please either fax a copy of your letter to (520) 325-4230 or mail a copy to AAPS.

A sample letter is on the reverse side.

The text of the bill may be downloaded from www.leginfo.ca.gov. Click on "Bill Information." An analysis of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, on which the California proposal is based, is available here.

A number of excellent amendments have been drafted by the Child and Family Protection Association, PO Box 730, Lincoln, CA 95648-0730. It is best that the bill be defeated, however, because of the nature of the legislative sausage factory. We will e-mail you a copy of the suggested amendments on request (to [email protected]).

Please help us defeat this very dangerous bill!

Jane M. Orient, M.D., F.A.C.P., Executive Director

P.S. If you are not receiving our periodic e-mail or FAX alerts, send us your contact numbers. We send messages only when there is important action to take, or to call your attention to especially useful news items or resources.

The Honorable (first & last name)
Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Assembly Member (last name):

Please list (your name or your organization or business) in Opposition to Assembly Bill AB 1763.

[Attention letter writer: Use the above sentence. Listing specific points is optional. If you choose to give reasons, select one or more of the following points and change the wording some, or add your own.]

We are strongly opposed to AB 1763 for many reasons, including the following:

AB effectively 1763 forces physicians, dentists, nurses, paramedics, lab technicians, pharmacists, and other professionals as well as public or private, for-profit or non-profit medical facilities into involuntary servitude during a declared state of public health emergency under threat of losing their license to practice in California (proposed Health and Safety Code Sections 130442 and 130520).

AB 1763 violates patient privacy by requiring physicians, pharmacists, dentists and others to report personally identifying information about patients before there is a declaration of a state of public emergency, and without the patient's written consent. It also requires pharmacists to report data on over-the-counter sales, and customer information that pharmacists are not required to obtain under current law (proposed Section 130380, 130382, & 130384).

AB 1763, contrary to the Nuremberg Code, calls for mandatory immunizations (or quarantine or isolation) without prior informed consent; without consideration of personal beliefs, prior medical conditions or contraindications; and without any provision to keep families together, including keeping children with their parents or legal guardians during quarantine or isolation.

AB 1763 gives the Governor inappropriate authority to declare a state of public health emergency without consulting anyone and without any accountability, not even to the Legislature, for 30 days.

AB 1763 inappropriately gives police powers over medical professionals, medical facilities, and ordinary citizens to the Department of Health Services, to local government agencies responsible for protecting the public's health, and to any person designated by them.

AB 1763 ignores the California Emergency Services Act and all other existing laws, including provisions in the Health and Safety Code, which are in place and have been proven effective to address potential and actual emergencies that could affect public health.

Sincerely,