Proposed Bill in Virginia will make you a criminal if you fail to report a miscarriage.

Virginia State Legislature ^ | 1/7/04 | James Cosgrove

[SilentServiceCPO]

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 32.1-264 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:... When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance, it shall be the woman's responsibility to report the death to the law-enforcement agency in the jurisdiction of which the delivery occurs within 12 hours after the delivery. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

[jwalsh07]

A. A fetal death report for each fetal death which occurs in this Commonwealth shall be filed, on a form furnished by the State Registrar, with the registrar of the district in which the delivery occurred or the abortion was performed within three days after such delivery or abortion and shall be registered with such registrar if it has been completed and filed in accordance with this section; provided that:

Seems pretty clear to me.

[lodwick]

Missed period?

Die, commrade.

Welcome to the PrisonPlanet.com

[jwalsh07]

Amend this:This is the current law in Virginia and it only concerns live births and abortions, not miscarriages.

To this: This is the current law in Virginia and it only concerns deliveries and abortions, not miscarriages.

[SilentServiceCPO]

§ 32.1-249. Definitions:... 2. "Fetal death" means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, regardless of the duration of pregnancy; death is indicated by the fact that after such expulsion or extraction the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles. I understand your point, and anyone with common sense would say that criminal penalties shouldn't apply, but the legal definition of "Fetal Death" in VA specifically states that duration of pregnancy is irrelevant. Link is here: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+32.1-249

[mrsmith]

"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. "

But I'm familiar with some RNs so if one says 17 weeks, then it's 17 weeks!

BTW: congratulations and keep up the good work! The world needs all the Virginians it can get.

[ShadowDancer]

This is horrid and I swear to God, I better not hear from one whack job about how abortion makes this okay.

[cake_crumb]

"talk to any woman who is a mother and you'll find that at least 50% seem to have miscarried at least once... "

I'm one of them. This sounds like a bad bill. It won't stop mothers from sticking live babies in the garbage to die, which is murder and obviously illegal. It'll make the lives of law abiding young women, heart broken aftr losing a shild, that much more miserable.

[ShadowDancer]

Its nonsense like this coming from pro-lifers that will allow the abortionists to paint pro-lifers even more as extremists

Damned right.

[Nataku X]

It has been estimated that more than half of all fertilized eggs end up in miscarriage. A lot of eggs naturally just don't implant (yes, even without BC) and the woman never notices.

[KoRn]

Thanks! By the way, the wife tells me that's the way they do at her hospital. It could be a county/city rule, who knows. I DO KNOW she has been wrong before hehe....don't tell her I said that though.

[cake_crumb]

Correcton: "It'll make the lives of law abiding young women, heart broken aftr after losing a shild child, that much more miserable."

Caffeination is our friend....and I hate using this desk, it's dark over here and the keyboard is different.

[SilentServiceCPO]

I am aware of the current law, what this thread is about is a proposed ammendment to the law the provides for criminal penalties for a woman who suffers an unattended fetal death (miscarriage falls into this category regardless of the intentions of the good Delegate) and fails to report this to the police within twelve hours of the event.

Read the link above if you doubt this. And also, in VA, "fetal death", as defined by law, is independant of the gestational age of the baby. So, I will not be writing a letter of apology to Cosgrove or anyone else. I actually expect my representatives to not make such glaring errors (of course, assuming that it is not his intention to place grieving mothers in jail for failing to call the cops within 12 hours)

[SilentServiceCPO]

Congratulations!

[mrsmith]

That certainly sounds like Cosgrove has made an error in terminology.

[KoRn]

Thanks! We are having a boy!!!!! This was the final try....after 3 girls AAHHHHRRRRGGG!!!!!!

[DoughtyOne]

Dang, I was certain it was the umpteenth degree.

[SilentServiceCPO]

LOL, My Dad wanted a girl so bad. He gave up after four boys though:-)

[RecallMoran]

I think this is a no brainer. What woman (in her right mind) doesn't talk to her dr. at miscarraige? They have to examine you to see if everything went ok. If not they have to do a dnc and most of the time after the 9th week they have to do a dnc anyway. Secondly, you don't wait till 3 months anymore to see a dr., you can get a sonogram immediately and start blood testing, fetal monitoring etc as early as 6 weeks or sooner. I think this might have something to do with the abortion pill and the women's deaths it is causing. It's not really and invasion of privacy if the dr. reports it and this way they can collect some stats on RU-289 or whatever the number is.

[Ellesu]

Congratulations! I had 2 girls and then a boy, Boys are so much easier which makes it nice since he is the last one and she/both of you will be tired!


On this issue, don't most women go to their DR. after a miscarriage and surely he fills out paperwork needed for state records such as these? Why do the police have to be involved?

[SilentServiceCPO]

I certainly hope so. I love living in Chesapeake in part because of the political atmosphere, not in spite of it. His office has reportedly said that the intention of this amendment is to prevent the abandonment of babies after birth. However, Virginia already has a "Safe Haven" law and plenty of Child Endangerment laws on the books. Also, this law would only apply to baby (fetus, to some) born dead, so abandonment is not an issue at that point. I sincerely hope that this is just a case of legislative incompetence and not a serious attempt to invade the privacy of Virginians by criminalizing what is already a traumatic experience for the families involved.