People Ex Rel. Eichenberger v. Stockton Pregnancy Control Medical Clinic, Inc.

Defendants Stockton Pregnancy Control Medical Clinic, Inc. (Clinic), Kenneth W. Shunk, M.D., Christopher R. Mills, M.D., and Annette Beck, R.N., appeal from an order granting a preliminary injunction. Clinic was enjoined from violating the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (Pen. Code, § 11164 et seq., hereafter Act) by failing to report, as child abuse, instances where minor patients under the age of 14 years are diagnosed as being pregnant, as having a sexually transmitted disease, or as suffering from complications of an abortion. (Further statutory references *231 are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.) Clinic contends the injunction is overbroad. Clinic asserts the Act does not require the reporting of voluntary, consensual sexual conduct of minors. Clinic and amicus curiae contend the reporting law would substantially infringe the affected minors’ constitutional rights to privacy if the law were construed to require reporting of the minors’ consensual sexual activity.

We conclude the Act does not currently require the reporting of voluntary sexual conduct between minors under age 14 where both are of a similar age. The injunction is therefore…

I concur in the judgment and opinion of the court. However, because the court’s opinion accepts uncritically the holding of Planned Parenthood Affiliates v. Van de Kamp (1986) 181 Cal.App.3d 245 , I write separately to register my strong disagreement with that decision. That disagreement notwithstanding, I acknowledge I am not at liberty to repudiate or ignore Planned Parenthood. This inability derives from the presumption that the Legislature by subsequent amendment adopted Planned Parenthood’s holding that it is not the intent of the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (Act) to impose a duty to report voluntary sexual conduct between minors under 14 and of similar age. As stated by the Supreme Court, “ ‘[wjhere a statute has been construed by judicial decision, and that construction is not altered by subsequent legislation, it must be presumed that the Legislature is aware of the judicial construction and approves of it.’ (People v. Hallner (1954) 43 Cal.2d 715, 719 [ 277 P.2d 393 ; People v. Fox (1977) 73 Cal.App.3d 178, 181 [ 140 Cal.Rptr. 615 ].)” (Wilkoff v. Superior Court (1985) 38 Cal.3d 345, 353 [ 211 Cal.Rptr. 742 , 696 P.2d 134 ].)

Although I am bound to presume that…

Defendants Stockton Pregnancy Control Medical Clinic, Inc. (Clinic), Kenneth W. Shunk, M.D., Christopher R. Mills, M.D., and Annette Beck, R.N., appeal from an order granting a preliminary injunction. Clinic was enjoined from violating the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (Pen. Code, § 11164 et seq., hereafter Act) by failing to report, as child abuse, instances where minor patients under the age of 14 years are diagnosed as being pregnant, as having a sexually transmitted disease, or as suffering from complications of an abortion. (Further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.) Clinic contends the injunction is overbroad. Clinic asserts the Act does not require the reporting of voluntary, consensual sexual conduct of minors. Clinic and amicus curiae contend the reporting law would substantially infringe the affected minors' constitutional rights to privacy if the law were construed to require reporting of the minors' consensual sexual activity.

We conclude the Act does not currently require the reporting of voluntary sexual conduct between minors under age 14 where both are of a similar age. The injunction is therefore…