“It's a Crying Shame”

Even Jacob agrees. For parents to have to be fighting for the right to have their baby’s birth recognized by the issuance of a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth is a crying shame.

Birth is a process all mothers go through. Live or still is the result. We acknowledge mothers of live babies, but ignore mothers of still babies. Why? To punish them? To announce to the world what they already know and feel, that they failed at their task?

“There ought to be a law!” That’s what Joanne Cacciatore-Garard, stillbirth mother of Cheyenne and founder of the MISS Foundation thought. And thanks to Joanne’s skill and determination, Arizona got its law in 2001 and Joanne got a Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth for Cheyenne. But as Joanne proved, laws don’t just “happen”. They’re the result of citizens with a cause “cornering” legislators and badgering them until they introduce a “bill” and then agree to steer that bill through the enactment process to the Governor’s desk for signature.

Everyone has an agenda from protecting the whales to promoting world peace. And opening day of any given legislature’s session is like opening day of hunting season. Every legislator is a “target” and we have to have him or her in our sights before the opening day of the session or risk having to wait until next year.

A wag once said two things the average citizen should never see being “made” are sausages and laws. Years ago your Executive Director was a volunteer lobbyist for the Realtors.  He has seen lots of laws being made, some of which he authored.  Recently he worked closely with The MISS Foundation in helping Joanne enact the first “Missing Angel Act” in Arizona in 2001. Now he’s guiding the Stillbirth Society’s effort to spread that law across the nation.

Laws affecting the issuance of Certificates of Birth are state laws and can be found under the section on “vital records”. Most states have a Bureau of Vital Records, generally organized by county - or “parish” if you live in Louisiana. For your state, go to WWW.GOOGLE.COM and type in “(name of state) State Legislature” in quotes and hit “SEARCH”. You’re on your way to being a political activist.

At this point don’t waste time writing to Congress. This is not their domain. (Later, when we’re looking for a funding bill for stillbirth research we’ll issue a call to action, and that will be the time to write your Congressman.)

The battle for recognition of mothers and their stillborn babies has to be waged on a state-by-state basis. We can’t do it alone. We need all parents at the local level to get involved. Legislators know to respond to “constituents” – read that as local voters – and ignore the rest for the simple reason we don’t have a vote to elect them. Our strength lies in being able to give each State Director and his or her volunteers the tools to succeed in your own backyard.

Other Legislative Issues – Until we enact The Missing Angel Act across the land we are premature discussing other issues, which is not to say we don’t have several. But first, we need to get your legislator’s attention and, more important, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. We’ll do that by showing him or her that you have the political savvy – and the political will – to move a bill through your own state legislature.

If you demonstrate you can put a bill through, you also show that you have the strength and skills to help vote a recalcitrant legislator out of office!  Respect is desired, but the ultimate weapon we wield is fear. Once upon a time politicians operated in obscurity. If a citizen wanted to know what was going on in your state capitol they had to drive there. Today we can surf on over there in most states! Just go online and watch Committee proceedings. How secure can any legislator feel who takes an unpopular position on the bill if he then finds a half dozen phone messages waiting when he gets back to his office? Yikes.

One last point about the legislative process… but a vital one. Most people say, “There Ought to be a Law”, and then go right back to what they were doing before they saw the news item that aroused them, if only momentarily. The willingness to step up and take action puts unbelievable power in your hands. While you may feel the sole vote you cast is insignificant at the polls, when you sit across from a politician you speak not only for yourself, but for the thousands who aren’t there.

Recently the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the Missing Angel Act by a vote of 200 to ZERO!  That’s an astounding vote for a group that likely couldn’t agree January 1^st is New Year’s Day. But remember, it doesn’t just happen. It takes work and it takes cooperation, and the place to start is with your State Director. We have provided a means for you to meet that person and volunteer your help.

Click here to see who’s the State Director for your state.

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