While skimming through recently introduced bills in the Minnesota legislature, I came across HF947. The bill's description - "Optional record of birth resulting in stillbirth provided" - jumped out at me because of Maura in VA's recent efforts to prevent a potentially disastrous bit of legislation in Virginia. So I took a closer look.
The text of the bill seems relatively harmless. It provides for the recording of stillbirths if the parents so desire. I'm not sure what the benefits of choosing to have a stillbirth recorded would be, or the drawbacks of opting out of the recording. Maybe someone can enlighten me here, as I'm new to reading bill-speak and may be missing something.
The part that seems strange to me is section 2 of the bill, which proposes an amendment to a 2004 statute requiring the reporting of fetal death. It seems that all miscarriages after 20 weeks gestation would be required to be reported within 5 days. This can be done by a physician or by the parents if the miscarriage occured outside of the care of a medical professional. The current version of the statute makes no reference to gestational age. However, it doesn't say what will happen to a parent who fails to report a miscarriage within 5 days or how a parent would know to do so in the first place.
This doesn't seem too terribly wacky, but I'm afraid there's something I'm missing. The bill's author is a Republican. The companion bill in the Senate is authored by the state's wingnuttiest wingnut, Michelle Bachmann of Stillwater. Bachmann is known primarily for her relentless (and so far failed) pushing of a hate ammendment and for wanting to rename a freeway the Ronald Reagan Beltway. Having her name attached gives me shivers and makes me think there's more to this than I'm seeing.
I have written to Rep. Klinzing for clarification, but I'm not sure if or when I'll hear back. Can any of you more well versed in legalese let me know if this is anything to be concerned about?