ARLINGTON, Va.—On Friday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill into law that requires the state Department of Health and Human Services to obtain parental consent before retaining any blood drawn from newborns in the state. The Institute for Justice (IJ), which has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of New Jersey over its blood retention policies, supported the bill in Utah. 

“We applaud Utah lawmakers for protecting the constitutional rights of newborn babies and their families by making these needed reforms,” said IJ Attorney Brian Morris. “Utah’s new law is now the gold standard and a model for other states throughout the country, and we urge other lawmakers to follow Utah’s lead.”  

Utah, like all states, tests the blood of newborns for rare diseases. That’s uncontroversial. But prior to today’s reforms, Utah would keep those samples in a database, without parental consent, for seven years. It would also keep information about the blood samples for 22 years.  

Now, the state is required to obtain parental consent if it wishes to hold onto the samples after the initial testing is complete. To obtain that consent, Utah must both tell parents for what purposes it will use the samples and how long it will keep them. Parents can then make an informed decision about whether to opt in to the retention program. 

All 50 states and the District of Columbia draw blood from newborns to test for diseases, but different states have different policies regarding the retention of these blood samples. Some states have even been caught selling data from these baby blood databases to private third parties, giving data to police without a warrant, or handing data to the Pentagon to build a registry.   

IJ filed its lawsuit against New Jersey in November 2023, on behalf of two families who were concerned that the Garden State was keeping the blood from every newborn, without parental consent, in a secret government database for 23 years. Police officers have been caught accessing New Jersey’s database without a warrant. In response to IJ’s lawsuit, the state shortened the time it holds onto the blood from 23 years to two years. But the lawsuit continues because, unlike Utah, New Jersey still refuses to require its officials to get informed consent from parents before retaining their children’s blood.