Measure to OK birth certificates for stillborn advances in Senate

BY MICHAEL R. WICKLINE
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Posted on Thursday, March 8, 2007

The state Vital Records Division would be authorized to issue birth certificates to parents of stillborn babies under a bill that cleared a state Senate committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 398 by Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, would require people who must file a fetal death certificate under state law to advise the parent or parents that they may request a certificate of birth resulting from a stillbirth.

The parent would have to pay “the required fee” and can provide a name for a stillborn infant to be on the certificate. If the parent doesn’t provide a name, the Vital Records Division of the Department of Health and Human Services would be required to use the name “baby boy” or “baby girl” and the last name of the parent seeking the certificate.

Under the bill, stillbirth would be defined as “an unintended, intrauterine fetal death occurring in this state after a gestational age of not less than 20 completed weeks.”

Salmon said she filed the bill at the request of Tina and Jason Lee of Sherwood.

Tina Lee said her firstborn was stillborn in July 2004.

“Please don’t deny us the ability to have a stillborn certificate,” she told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.

Lynette Spruiell, coordinator of a perinatal bereavement program at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, said one of every 115 births is stillborn and more than 300 stillbirths are reported in Arkansas each year.

“These parents need Arkansas’ gift of acknowledgment,” she said.

Spruiell said 14 states have enacted laws to offer a document that includes the words “certificate of birth” in the title to the parents of stillborn children. Seventeen other states are considering legislation to authorize such certificates, she said.