Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said he is introducing legislation to ensure that hospitals and freestanding birth centers provide clear information about the rights grieving parents have regarding their abortion or the cremation or burial of their stillborn baby.
Marshall, who practiced as an obstetrician-gynecologist for more than 25 years, said he is naming the bill “Bereaved Parents’ Rights Act.” Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Florida, who personally suffered from an ectopic pregnancy, said she is sponsoring a companion version in the House.
According to Marshall, laws governing the handling of fetal remains after abortion or stillbirth vary from state to state, and many states have no explicit legal requirements regarding disposal of remains, leaving hospitals to rely on internal policies and procedures.
students for life action We support this measure and are leading lobbying on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to support it, said Kristen Hawkins, president of the organization.
The law will be amended Title XVIII of the Social Security Act Hawkins said, “To say that the hospital where she is delivering her baby, whether the baby is born dead or by abortion … she has to notify the parents at least six hours after the event or before discharge” and “how she can bring her baby’s body to the funeral home for cremation if she wishes.”
A standardized form from the Secretary of Health and Human Services would ensure that parents have the right to cremate a baby after an abortion or stillbirth, Hawkins said, and it would apply in every state.
“This law is a mindless one,” Cammack said. “It’s very simple in my mind. Any parent who has lost a child needs the space, the opportunity and the resources to properly grieve that child.”
“Burying your child to recover his or her remains” “is not a partisan issue,” he said. “I believe this is a humanitarian issue and if we are serious about respecting life and protecting people, then we would truly support and pass this legislation to end the closure of so many families across the country.”
Bill sponsors said they have been trying to find a Democratic cosponsor for the bill but without success.
Cammack said, “There’s a culture around this issue that doesn’t allow people access to the facts. And while you’re certainly entitled to your opinion, you’re not entitled to your facts.”
“And the fact is that these are children, these are human beings who have heartbeats, and they deserve the same respect that a child who was born and lost deserves,” she said.
He said, “It should be very simple that every woman, no matter where you are in the country, no matter what hospital you are in, should be given the same rights that are given to any woman who values and protects life.”
personal testimony
“I see tremendous value in women coming together and reaching across the aisle to say, ‘We have all experienced loss in some form, whether you personally or you know someone who has,'” Cammack said.
A briefing by Students for Life Action on May 13 included several personal testimonials from women who have been affected by abortion and stillbirth, urging lawmakers to advance the bill.
Sarah Wirtz said: “I couldn’t go to the hospital. I actually waited for three days to go to the hospital because I was just trying to research… whether I would be allowed to give birth to my son,” she said. “He had passed away, but he was still inside me.”
She said, “At least I knew the medical system would provide me with more protection after 20 weeks” and “I was absolutely terrified of what it would mean legally for my baby.”
Wertz said she was asking: “Will I be given my baby? When I go in to give birth, will they take him away from me?”
Wirtz said she spent time risking her health to find resources to ensure she was able to preserve her son’s body. Once she found Heaven’s Gain Ministries, a Catholic organization that helps families with pregnancy loss, she was told “you’re very lucky to be in Ohio,” because state law ensured she had rights to her baby.
“So I went to the hospital, I gave birth to my son Noah and I was able to bury him,” she said. “But I was also told at the time, if (I) had been in California … I would not have been afforded the same rights under the law.”
“She would be treated as of her gestational size, which is less than 20 weeks, and I would not be guaranteed the right to her disposition and … what happened to her body,” he said.
language of abortion
Hawkins also noted the importance of language when discussing abortion and miscarriage and making sure women know the differences and understand the procedures.
“Something we saw in the fall of Dobbs… Planned Parenthood started changing the language around intentional abortion, direct intentional abortion, and they started using the phrase ‘induced abortion,'” she said.
“This is largely due to the invention and the abortion industry’s shift toward chemical abortion pills, where we know that at least 70% of these abortions, which are still taking the lives of about a million babies per year, are being performed using these pills,” she said.
He said, “The way they are planning abortion for many young confused women, very scared women, is you are just going to ‘induce abortion.’ It’s going to be just like abortion.”
“We know they are two very different things. And I think besides the evil of Planned Parenthood murdering children and harming women … this is the third greatest evil that they have done, which is trying to use the pain and tragedy of abortion and then trying to change the hearts of millions of Americans to their issue, which is the intentional destruction of a human being,” Hawkins said.
