On the recordJune 24, 2014
I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), one of the greatest champions that this Chamber has ever seen in the cause of human life, and I share that cause with him as well. I thank the authors for their positive intentions on this bill. I am a mother of five biological children and 23 foster children, and that is what every parent and every mother and every father hopes, is to have the best possible health care for their children, the best possible outcome. I do share concerns on this bill as well, as well intentioned as this is, and let me just list what my concerns are. Number one, the Federal Government will have the ability to collect and automatically store the blood sample of every baby in the United States. There won't be any allowance for parental consent to be required before the storage of these blood samples are made. Every baby's DNA, which is the entire genetic code of that baby, will be under the control of the government. I have data privacy concerns. Why should anyone, especially our government, have everyone's identity at their disposal? Third, there is no provision for any parent to opt out, so this legislation presumes that every parent of every newborn in the United States of America pre-agrees that the government can have their baby's blood sample, which contains their DNA code, and that the government can indefinitely store that data.…
