New Jersey § 26:2-111

§ 26:2-111.

The Legislature finds and declares that: a. Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are structural abnormalities of the heart that

are present at birth; CHDs range in severity from simple problems such as holes between

chambers of the heart, to severe malformations, such as the complete absence of one

or more chambers or valves; some critical CHDs can cause severe and life-threatening

symptoms which require intervention within the first days of life; b. According to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services' Advisory

Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, congenital heart disease

affects approximately seven to nine of every 1,000 live births in the United States

and Europe; the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that CHD

is the leading cause of infant death due to birth defects; c. Current methods for detecting CHDs generally include prenatal ultrasound screening

and repeated clinical examinations; while prenatal ultrasound screenings can detect

some major congenital heart defects, these screenings, alone, identify less than half

of all CHD cases, and critical CHD cases are often missed during routine clinical

exams performed prior to a newborn's discharge from a birthing facility; d. Pulse oximetry is a non-invasive test that estimates the percentage of hemoglobin

in blood that is saturated with oxygen; when performed on a newborn a minimum of

24 hours after birth, pulse oximetry screening is often more effective at detecting

critical, life-threatening CHDs which otherwise go undetected by current screening

methods; newborns with abnormal pulse oximetry results require immediate confirmatory

testing and intervention; and e. Many newborn lives could potentially be saved by earlier detection and treatment

of CHDs if birthing facilities in the State were required to perform this simple,

non-invasive newborn screening in conjunction with current CHD screening methods.