Legislators target law on birth certificates
By Chelyen Davis
The News & Advance

Two years ago, Cheryl Carter gave birth to twins, Donovan and Sean.
In the eyes of the state, Donovan was a child, and Sean was a statistic.

That's because Sean was stillborn. State law doesn't allow birth certificates for stillborn children.

"It was extremely hurtful, it was like losing him all over again," Carter says.

Now two local lawmakers are trying to make sure future parents of stillborn children don't go through the same experience.

Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, and state Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, announced Friday they will introduce a bill in the 2003 General Assembly session to allow parents of stillborn children to receive a birth certificate from the state.

"This is the right thing for Virginia to do, to bring dignity to the families," Byron said in a news conference in Virginia Baptist Hospital's Memory Garden, where parents of stillborn children plant flowers every year.

The bill is still in draft form, but Byron said it will allow parents to apply for birth certificates when fetal death occurs after 20 weeks of gestation. A full-term gestation is usually 38 to 40 weeks.

The 20-week cutoff is based on the Board of Health's definition of fetal death, as opposed to miscarriage, Byron said. Twenty weeks is also after the cutoff for abortions.

In several states, efforts to allow birth certificates for stillborn children have caused controversy from pro-choice groups who fear such a move is a backdoor effort by pro-life groups to define a fetus as a child.

Byron and Newman said their bill is intended only to help the families of stillborn children, not to raise the abortion issue, and they hope it won't be controversial.

For that reason, Newman enlisted Democratic state Sen. Janet Howell as a co-sponsor.

"I don't want this to get caught up in the abortion pro-life pro-choice debate," Newman said. "This is about closure for the families."

"I really think because of the way it was designed, we are not going to run into any conflict," Byron said.

The birth certificate for stillborn children would be different from those for live children, because it will note that the child was stillborn.

Carter said she was able to get a record of fetal death for Sean, but it didn't have his name on it.

"If you're going to record the death, how can you not record the birth?" she asked.

Carter wants acknowledgement that Sean existed, and she wants the same thing for other mothers of stillborn children.

"Birth is a process. You either have a live baby or you don't, but you still go through that process," Carter said. "To not have acknowledgement of that process is painful."

Since Sean's death, she has become the Virginia director for the National Stillbirth Society.

Byron's and Newman's announcement came the day before the 14th annual "Walk to Remember," an event begun to memorialize stillborn children.

Parents will gather today at Craddock Auditorium in Virginia Baptist Hospital, walk to the memorial garden and plant tulips in memory of their children.


Contact Chelyen Davis at cdavis@newsadvance.com or (434) 385-5539.

Last Updated 07/20/2006     Design donated by Web-Writer