Description
The legislation creates a “family-friendly” death certificate to acknowledge the loss a family suffers upon the death and stillbirth of a child.

Background
When a family suffers the death of a child moments after the birth of that child, their grief is profound. This legislation recognizes their loss with a death certificate. Although this gesture does not remove the family’s grief, it does help to console the family. When a family suffers the death of a child moments before the birth of that child, they experience the same loss as those families that lose a young child. However, those families that lose their children to stillbirth or miscarriage are not given any recognition of their loss.

An amendment was added on the House floor by Rep. Triette Reeves which requires that race be included in the abortion reporting data. This will allow the state to have a Michigan-specific picture of the race of women obtaining abortions.

History
Sen. Bennett introduced S.B. 1323 on 5/07/02 and it was referred to the Families, Mental Health, & Human Services Committee. The Committee held a hearing on 5/15/02 and the bill was passed unanimously. S.B. 1323 was passed unanimously by the full Senate on 5/30/02 and sent to the House where it was referred to the Committee on Family & Children Services.

The bill was voted out of committee on 9/17/02. That same day, the House amended the bill with an unrelated amendment so that the bill became a two issue bill. This move caused us to lose the votes of some staunch pro-life legislators, but the bill was still passed as amended by the House with a 69 to 33 vote. On 9/19/02 the Senate concurred in the amended House version with a 26 to 9 vote.