Calif. governor vetoes breast density bill
by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | October 10, 2011
California Gov. Jerry Brown sided with a state medical group and vetoed a bill Sunday that would have required doctors to inform women if they have dense breasts after a mammogram.
In a letter to the California legislature, Brown, a Democrat, said he supported the public's right to information about its health. But he said he "struggled" over the wording of the notice that the bill would have required doctors to send to their patients, as it could lead to "unnecessary anxiety."
"If a state must mandate a notice about breast density -- and I am not certain it should -- such a notice must be more carefully crafted, with words that educate more than they prescribe," he wrote.
The bill, SB 791, passed the state Senate 35-1 last month, and was one of a mass of bills Brown shot down Sunday, during a long day signing and vetoing bills.
An earlier incarnation of the bill, SB 173, was opposed by a league of medical groups, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - District IX, the California Radiological Society, the California Medical Association, the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California and the Association of Northern California Oncologists.
The medical associations said the bill would burden patients with needless costs, and that the information about the appropriate course of clinical action for women with dense breasts was ambiguous and "not suitable for inclusion in a state mandate."
Texas and Connecticut both have breast density bills, and New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and Florida all have similar legislation pending.
The American College of Radiology Imaging Network says that around 40 percent of women getting screening mammograms have dense breasts, with younger women typically having denser breasts.
Dense breasts are less fatty, with more connective tissue. The connective tissue appears white on a mammogram, just like the cancer, making it harder to diagnose, according to Are You Dense, an advocacy group.
A January 2011 study by the Mayo Clinic found three-quarters of cancers in women with dense breasts are missed by mammograms.
In a letter to the California legislature, Brown, a Democrat, said he supported the public's right to information about its health. But he said he "struggled" over the wording of the notice that the bill would have required doctors to send to their patients, as it could lead to "unnecessary anxiety."
"If a state must mandate a notice about breast density -- and I am not certain it should -- such a notice must be more carefully crafted, with words that educate more than they prescribe," he wrote.
The bill, SB 791, passed the state Senate 35-1 last month, and was one of a mass of bills Brown shot down Sunday, during a long day signing and vetoing bills.
An earlier incarnation of the bill, SB 173, was opposed by a league of medical groups, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists - District IX, the California Radiological Society, the California Medical Association, the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California and the Association of Northern California Oncologists.
The medical associations said the bill would burden patients with needless costs, and that the information about the appropriate course of clinical action for women with dense breasts was ambiguous and "not suitable for inclusion in a state mandate."
Texas and Connecticut both have breast density bills, and New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and Florida all have similar legislation pending.
The American College of Radiology Imaging Network says that around 40 percent of women getting screening mammograms have dense breasts, with younger women typically having denser breasts.
Dense breasts are less fatty, with more connective tissue. The connective tissue appears white on a mammogram, just like the cancer, making it harder to diagnose, according to Are You Dense, an advocacy group.
A January 2011 study by the Mayo Clinic found three-quarters of cancers in women with dense breasts are missed by mammograms.
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