Staff Writer
Deaths of fetuses older than five months would be catalogued, recorded
STILLWATER - In a move that could be interpreted as a measure of respect or an inroad against legal abortion, a local senator has authored a bill that would require the state to register stillborn babies.
Sen. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, authored the bill, which would require a "certificate of stillbirth" to be filed with the state registrar within five days for fetuses older than 20 weeks. The names of the parent or parents would be included on the certificate.
Hospitals currently do not issue a legal document to the parents of a stillborn fetus, but they are required to issue Fetal Death Reports to county and state offices.
Bachmann said she decided to work on the legislation (Senate File 191) after she was approached by a woman who had given birth to a stillborn baby. The woman told Bachmann that there was a coalition of families that was surprised to learn that they were not able to get a certificate of record for their stillborn child.
"They wanted to be able to recognize that a child had been born," Bachmann said. "They wanted to have something, obviously it's not a live birth, but they wanted to have something that recognized that their child existed and was born. So, they came and asked if I would be willing to carry this legislation."
Support for similar legislation has gained traction around the country. Arizona was the first state to offer a certificate of stillbirth, and legislators in several other states have passed bills or are working on them.
"We are now in the process of requesting a first hearing," Bachmann said. She expects the hearing to happen in the third week of March. She does not anticipate any resistance to the bill, she said, because it does not have a financial impact on the state.
"I think from a policy point of view, it's good to recognize that a part of our human family existed and to make a memorial of that. So I can't imagine any reason why anyone would resist this bill."
How abortion rights advocates will react to the proposed legislation remains to be heard. The certificate of stillbirth could be interpreted as an inroad to reverse abortion rights.
"I haven't heard from people yet," said Sen. Linda Berglin, D-Minneapolis, who chairs the Senate's Health, Human Services and Corrections Budget Commission. Most legislators are unfamiliar with the bill, including herself, she said, because the bill has not had its first hearing.
Initial debate, Berglin said, could focus on whether or not unviable fetuses - ones with genetic deformities and other problems that would have prevented their survival outside the womb - should be required to have certificates.
Noting the complexity of the issue, Berglin added that legislators might also debate whether "new standards" would be given to the unborn.
"There are some people that believe that life is formed at conception," she said. " (Bachmann's) bill isn't saying that we give certificates of stillbirth to tissue that is not born - but (it) is fertilized." Bachmann said it is unlikely that her bill could infringe upon current abortion rights legislation.
"I don't see how this bill in any way could infringe on abortion rights in the future. This is a recognition, a memorial, that there was a child that was living, no one can deny that there was a child that was living inside the womb of its mother, and that's what this is. This is meant as a bill to honor that life."
Bachmann said no anti-abortion groups asked her to write the bill. "I am pro-life ... but this is not phrased in any way to be a pro-life bill. This is a measure for grieving families to help them deal with grief."
Senate debate over the bill's potential ramifications will most likely have to wait until the bill is introduced in the state House of Representatives, said William Wilson, administrator for the Health and Family Security Committee. Sen. Becky Lourey, D-Kerrick, chairs the committee and could schedule a hearing for Bachmann's bill.
For Bachmann to have her bill heard in the Senate, a House legislator will likely have to file a bill similar to it in the House. As of the Monday, February 17, a bill had not been introduced in the House.
"We could hear it, but if there is no House File, then it's half a bill," he said. "It is sort of an unwritten rule, that if there is no House File, then there's really no sense in hearing a Senate File." Bachmann still has plenty of time to organize a House File, he added.
Mike Mitchelson, a former Gazette columnist and freelance writer, is the newest addition to the Gazette staff. You may reach him at (651) 796-1111 and at mlmitch@pressenter.com.