Chapter 2280. To provide for the better registration of births in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 2280.— An Act To provide for the better registration of births in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. March 1, 1907. [[S. 4506](/us/bill/59/s/4506).] [[Public, No. 149](/us/pl/59/149).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, District of Columbia.Registration of births.Report required from physician, midwife, etc.Blanks. That any physician or midwife who attends at the birth of tiny child within the District of Columbia, and any person whosoever who, in the absence of a physician or midwife, performs any of the offices usually rendered by such shall execute or cause to be executed and shall file with the health officer of said District not later than the.
Saturday first ensuing after the expiration of three secular days immediately following the date of such birth a proper report thereof, written in ink, on a blank furnished by said health officer, embodying all such data as may be necessary for the purposes of the Bureau of the Census of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and such other data, if any, as the Commissioners of said District deem needful. So far as relates to any data aforesaid not based upon the personal observation of the physician, midwife, or other person by whom report is made, every such report shall show the name and address of the informant and the relationship of said informant to the child born: *Provided*, *however*, *Provisos*.Illegitimate children.That if the child born lie illegitimate it shall in no case be necessary for any physician, midwife, or other person to indicate on any report required by this Act any fact or facts whereby the identity of the father or of the mother or of the child born will be disclosed:
Stillbirths. *And provided further*, That no report need be made of stillbirths when the fetus delivered has apparently not passed the fifth month of uterogestation. Acknowledgment of parent.Upon receipt of any report aforesaid, said health officer shall forward to the father of the child, or if his address be unknown, to the mother, an acknowledgment of the receipt of such report, and if the infant delivered be not stillborn, and such report does not contain Record of name.the given name of the child born, a blank form on which the father or mother may certify over his or her signature the name of such child, which form, if thus executed and returned to said health officer within three months next following the date of birth, shall be a part of the official record of such birth.
Sec. 2. False certificates, etc., forbidden. That no person shall, in the District of Columbia, willfully or negligently certify falsely to any fact whatsoever upon any report of a birth. And after any such report has been received by the health officer of said District no person shall alter the same otherwise than by amendments written independently of the body of the report and properly dated, signed, and witnessed. No person shall in said Dis-1011trict make any false or fictitious report of a birth or any false or fictitious transcript of any record of a birth or of a marriage.
Sec. 3. That the reports required by this Act shall, when duly filed Inspection of reports.with the health officer of the District of Columbia, be a part of the public records of said District, and any person having an interest in any particular matter contained or reasonably believed to be contained therein, shall be permitted to inspect such certificates and reports, during all reasonable hours, without charge, so far as can be done without interfering with the official use of such certificates by employees of the health department.
The health officer aforesaid shall Duties of health officer.be the custodian of all reports tiled under the provisions of this Act, and annually, and at such other times as the Commissioners of said District may direct, shall make and publish abstracts and analyses of the data therein contained. Sec. 4. That any person violating any of the provisions of this Act Punishment for violations.or aiding or abetting in any violation thereof shall be punished by a tine not exceeding two hundred dollars or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ninety days, or by both such tine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
And if any report required by Failure to report in specified time.this Act to be made within a specified time be not made within the time so specified each week or part of a week thereafter during which such report has not been made shall constitute a separate and distinct offense: *Provided*, *however*, That no report a foresaid nor any information *Proviso*.Prosecutions for not filing reports, evidence not admitted.which has been obtained by the prosecuting officer on the basis of such report shall be receivable in evidence against the person filing the same in any prosecution of such person for failure to file such report within the time allowed by law.
Prosecutions under this Act shall Corporation counsel’s duties.be in the police court of the District of Columbia on informations signed by the corporation counsel of said District or by one of his assistants. Sec. 5. That this Act shall take effect from and after the expiration Effect.of the six months immediately following its passage, and from and after that time all Acts and parts of Acts contrary to the provisions Repeal.of this Act or inconsistent therewith shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed.
Approved, March 1, 1907.