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News & ArtsFriday, January 23, 2009
News Had a Miscarriage?
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 11:28 AM
That's a personal tragedy. But have one in Virginia and you may have to report it to the state. Because there doesn't seem to be an exception for miscarriages in this proposed law requiring the reporting of all "fetal deaths" to the authorities.
1
With every bill you have to ask, "What problem is this measure intended to solve?" I'm stumped, unless Virginia's representatives think doctors need more make-work and women need to be more intimidated about abortions.
3
"When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff's department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."
The sadness I would feel from the miscarriage would be some what allayed by the childish glee I would have over handing over bloodied pads with fetal tissue stuck to them to authorities. It's the next best thing to smacking an officer the face with a tampon.
The sadness I would feel from the miscarriage would be some what allayed by the childish glee I would have over handing over bloodied pads with fetal tissue stuck to them to authorities. It's the next best thing to smacking an officer the face with a tampon.
4
Wow. That seems like it would be a first, making it a crime not to report something that is not a crime.
6
What if you have a really late, heavy period, but you never took a test so you don't know if you were actually pregnant or not? Report that too, just in case?
7
don't flush that toilet, on pain of....what? what exactly happens to you if somehow the authorities found out about that flush?
8
In fact, @3 may be on to something: let's just mail in the leavings of all menstruation and/or vaginal bleeding, to be analyzed by the state, so that no fetal cells go unreported.
9
The best response to this law is to report every menstrual event, just to be on the safe side. Isn't there some statistic that 1/3 of pregnancies end in a miscarriage and a high proportion of those the woman never knew she was pregnant?
11
I'm with you ladies: I'd be dropping off my bloody pads every month *just in case*. I'm sure the guys at the sheriff's office would be thrilled when they saw me walking through their front door every 28 days!
12
Hospitals refer to miscarriages as "spontaneous abortions", which my wife and I found out to our horror over a decade ago, when it looked like my wife might had "spontaneously aborted" our daughter in the first trimester (she hadn't)...
15
@12,
Why were you horrified by that? An abortion is a termination of a pregnancy, whether intentional or not.
How about the sewer? Is the sewer good enough for them?
Why were you horrified by that? An abortion is a termination of a pregnancy, whether intentional or not.
location of the remains
How about the sewer? Is the sewer good enough for them?
16
Wait, I see that this bill is dated January 2009, but I KNOW I heard about this years ago. I guess they tried to do it before, it failed because it's horrible, and now it's being resubmitted?
Also: this is a perfect example of why we northern Virginians don't mind not being considered part of "the real Virginia."
Also: this is a perfect example of why we northern Virginians don't mind not being considered part of "the real Virginia."
17
Someone seriously needs to start a "mail your used tampons to [whomever sponsored this legislation]" campaign. Does Patron-- Obenshain at the top of the bill mean Mark Obenshain is behind this?
18
@15, the term implied and assigned blame/guilt/intent for a tragic event we'd already begun grieving, only to have her pregnancy turn out to be unexpectedly fine after an ultrasound we thought was going to confirm a loss.
19
Go to the main page for the bill. The comments are actually encouraging; the vast majority of commenters are basically saying Shame on you, senator, and keep your nose out of what is often very tragic, and is always very private, business.
20
@18 - I can understand the effect the terminology would have on you, but isn't that the correct medical term? I would have issues with hospitals rewording things like this.
23
Washington State requires fetal deaths to be reported as well. The thing at issue is the definition of fetal death. Here in Washington, it is the demise of a fetus of 20 weeks or more gestation. That is a fetus approaching viability. Less than 20 weeks it is an abortus, spontaneous or otherwise and not subject to report.
I could not find any reference to gestational age in this measure. Perhaps it is defined elsewhere; if not, the law could well be unenforceable. 25 percent of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) by the 12th week. This often occurs so early that the mother is unaware that she was pregnant. The abortus can appear to be just heavy menstrual flow, in which case, how could it be reported? It appears to be a poorly thought out law which will be successfully challenged in court.
I could not find any reference to gestational age in this measure. Perhaps it is defined elsewhere; if not, the law could well be unenforceable. 25 percent of all pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) by the 12th week. This often occurs so early that the mother is unaware that she was pregnant. The abortus can appear to be just heavy menstrual flow, in which case, how could it be reported? It appears to be a poorly thought out law which will be successfully challenged in court.
25
Well, when you look at the ridiculous right, what is so surprising about a ridiculous law? They don't use rational thought. It's all fanatic all day for that bunch.
26
@20 Correct. There's spontaneous and induced abortions, and of the induced abortions there's medical and surgical. It's just unfortunate that common usage doesn't reflect the distinction. It's similar to how anorexia just means "lack of appetite" - if you want the mental disorder it's anorexia nervosa.
@18 I guess you'll have to take comfort in the fact that only hospital staff should have had access to that information and they'd all understand the distinction. It's certainly unfortunate that you had to learn the distinction at such an emotional time.
@18 I guess you'll have to take comfort in the fact that only hospital staff should have had access to that information and they'd all understand the distinction. It's certainly unfortunate that you had to learn the distinction at such an emotional time.
27
It calls for FETAL death notification, not EMBRYONIC death notification. So any late, heavy periods which might be miscarriages up to 10 weeks aren't covered by the bill, right? Still horrible, though...
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