New York Times Examines Advocacy For Laws That Allow Birth Certificates For Stillborn Infants

An increasing number of couples who experience stillbirth -- generally defined as an unintentional, naturally occurring fetal demise after 20 weeks' gestation -- are advocating for state laws that would allow them to receive hospital birth certificates for their infants, the New York Times reports. Nineteen states during the past six years have enacted laws allowing parents who have had stillborn infants to receive birth certificates, and similar legislation is under consideration in several other states, including New York and California.

According to the Times, most of the laws are retroactive, so parents can get a birth certificate for stillbirths from several years prior to requesting the certificate. Parents who request certificates are charged a small fee and can record a name or leave the name line blank. The measures politically "occupy uncertain territory, skirting the abortion debate while implicitly raising the question of fetal personhood," the Times reports.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) earlier this year vetoed a bill that would have allowed the state to issue birth certificates for stillborn infants. Richardson, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said that issuing separate documents for a fetal death and a birth resulting in stillbirth could create "confusion and potential fraud." Supporters of the measures said that fraud would not be possible because the certificates make clear that there is no living infant, the Times reports.

Many antiabortion groups say the laws fill an emotional need for parents. Some local chapters of abortion-rights groups have opposed the measures, but some national groups "are comfortable" with the laws if they are written to cover naturally occurring fetal death and not late-term abortions, according to the Times. "At a level of great abstraction, there are probably some people who worry that recognizing a nonviable fetus as a person would in some way be a seed that could sprout into a threat to abortion," Roger Evans, a lawyer for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, adding, "We recognize the tragedy and loss of stillbirth, and as long as these laws are medically accurate and the certificates are optional and commemorative, they're a way to recognize that loss."

Some counselors who work with parents who experienced stillbirths say the legislation would not be necessary if hospitals used informal "memory certificates" to recognize the loss, the Times reports. Perry-Lynn Moffit, a counselor with the Pregnancy Loss Support Program of the National Council of Jewish Women in New York City, said, "Parents want some kind of certificate, something they can frame that physically acknowledges the birth." More than 25,000 pregnancies annually end in stillbirth, according to the Times (Lewin, New York Times, 5/22).

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