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Portantino Takes Oath of Office
Pushes the Benefits of Umbilical Cord Blood

Sacramento - Former La Canada Flintridge Mayor Anthony J. Portantino was sworn in as an Assembly Member at a Sacramento ceremony on Monday. Portantino also made good use of his first day representing the residents of the 44th Assembly District by proposing his first piece of legislation, Assembly Bill 34. AB 34 endeavors to establish a network of five hospitals in California to harvest umbilical cord blood. Portantino called upon the difficult experience he and his wife had trying to donate their daughter’s cord blood five years ago and noted cord blood stem cells’ life saving benefits as the reason why he chose to introduce this bill. “My wife and I had a friend’s son cured of his leukemia through a cord blood transfusion. When our daughter, Bella, was born we wanted to donate her blood to help out other Californians who were suffering from blood related diseases. We found a very difficult process to navigate. I knew then, that if I were given the opportunity to encourage cord blood donation I’d jump at the chance. I’m honored to have been elected to State Assembly but I’ve also been entrusted with the tremendous responsibility to work toward improving California and I’m going to use it.”
Portantino wants expectant parents to know that although there are many outlets for paying to store one’s own cord blood, his goal is to make cord blood donation commonplace and readily available. By endeavoring to set up five hospital-based cord blood depositories throughout California the hope is to create a wide enough network to serve the diverse population of California. By just taking a little time in a very non-invasive way parents can donate their blood to help save lives.
Portantino was joined at the Monday ceremony by his wife Ellen, daughter Sofia and other relatives from the east and west coast. Many local residents and supporters made the commute north to wish Anthony well on his first term in State office. “I was very humbled to see so many folks from throughout the district fly to Sacramento. Campaigning introduced me to many new friends and I am extremely excited to be representing the 44th Assembly District.”

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