Committee advances bill requiring vitamin K administration with opt-out after counseling

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Jan. 28 voted to advance SB 170, a bill meant to ensure parents receive standardized information before declining a newborn vitamin K injection.

Sponsor Senator Plumb told the committee the measure is intended as an educational safeguard, not a punitive rule. "This bill...has a requirement that a healthcare provider or midwife administer vitamin K within 24 hours to an infant. But if parents don't want to, there is an opt-out process and they can sign that they don't want that after they've been given some education so they're sure they understand what they're opting out of," she said.

Practicing pediatricians testified at length in favor. Dr. Jennifer Brinton, a pediatrician in complex care, told the committee that "we know that at birth all babies are deficient of Vitamin K" and that infants who do not receive the injection are at much higher risk of serious bleeding. She said vitamin K shots have decades of safety data dating back to 1961. Dr. Chris Campbell, representing the Utah Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said oral vitamin K is a less-effective, second-line alternative that requires daily dosing for 90 days and "doesn't work as well." The Utah Academy of Family Physicians’ CEO, Mary Ann Martin Del, also urged support and emphasized that vitamin K is a nutrient, not a vaccine.

Senator Stratton raised a drafting concern: the bill text requires a provider to "issue the shot" while the opt-out clause requires a "full and clear explanation" before a parent may decline. He asked that the sponsor ensure the final draft makes explicit that providers must deliver the explanatory counseling before any opt-out is accepted. Senator Plumb committed to work with staff and drafters to revise the language prior to floor debate.

The committee advanced the bill favorably with the sponsor’s commitment to fix the drafting issue before floor consideration.

What’s next: Sponsor will work with legislative drafters to make the information-provision requirement explicit; SB 170 will proceed to the Senate floor.