Eye On Boise

‘Fetal death’ bill clears committee by one vote

Posted by Betsy

March 17, 2009 9:05 a.m. • 9 comments

Rep. Judy Boyle’s bill to require the state to issue an official “certificate of fetal death” at the request of a woman who has an early miscarriage or abortion brought an hour of emotional testimony this morning, including “grave concern” expressed by the head of Idaho’s bureau of vital statistics. Such official documents are used as evidence in court and proof of identity, and the bill’s requirements that the bureau accept unverified, unreported information and issue a non-public but official certificate would make official security paper more widely available for use in fraud, James Aydelotte told the House State Affairs Committee. “We should not be in the business of keepsake documents, no matter how heart-wrenching the event,” he told the panel. Anti-abortion activists and a couple who had suffered an early miscarriage offered extensive and sometimes tearful testimony in favor of the bill. “Bring recognition to our child so that we will no longer have to grieve alone,” Randy Jackson told the committee. Said activist David Ripley, “Part of that healing that goes on is claiming that baby.”

Boyle, R-Midvale, told the committee, “This bill is not about abortion, I want to make that perfectly clear. My intent was to help mothers and families with their grieving process.” The committee then voted down a motion to kill the bill by one vote, 8-9, and then passed the bill and sent it to the full House by the reverse vote, 9-8.

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

slfisher on March 17 at 11:04 a.m.
Oh, Randy Jackson is back.

Those of us in the Treasure Valley know him well as being the head of the Nampa-based Christian organization called Youth for Revolution, and one of the Brandi Swindell-Bryan Fischer Axis of Theocrats. He has led protests against Planned Parenthood and appeared as a so-called ‘concerned parent’ to help promote book censorship in the Nampa library.
trishgannon on March 17 at 4:28 p.m.
A death certificate is proof of identity. If you get a death certificate, does that mean you can claim the ‘child’ on taxes? Let’s face it, the death of a child is going to be devastating, and no official ‘death certificate’ is going to make anything any better. I lost my first child to miscarriage… I don’t need a death certificate to “bring recognition” to that child. But I might want a death certificate if I wanted to somehow cash in on that child.

Yeah, I know, cynical and not a nice perspective. But really, what possible benefit could a parent get from a death certificate from a child who never lived outside the mother?

Still… will these types of questions give Republicans some heartburn? I mean… is it a child, or isn’t it? And if it is, can I get welfare benefits for it? Even if it never lived?
thomg57 on March 17 at 4:39 p.m.
Anti-abortion activists

Hmmm? Perhaps this “recognition” has less to do with grieving alone, than it has to do with establishing some sort of recognition og the fetus by the state? And then…?
Sisyphus on March 18 at 9:09 a.m.
Your not cynical enough Trish. This is just another method by which the anti-abortion activists hope to erode away the constitutional right to privacy recognized by Roe v. Wade. What they’re doing is putting another brick in establishing state public policy in Idaho on rights for the unborn for an eventual assault on Roe itself on the state’s dime. All you gotta do is see the cast of characters supporting this effort.
Sisyphus on March 18 at 9:10 a.m.
In fact, that’s Bryan Fischer right there over the speaker’s shoulder. All he lacks are the strings attached to the puppet.