Extended access to fetal death certificates proposed by the legislator of North Texas

Austin -Parents, whose unborn child dies before the 20 -week pregnancy, were able to request a fetal death certificate in Texas as part of a legislative template heard on Wednesday.

The current state law requires a death certificate for fetus with a weight of at least 350 grams or at least 20 weeks of pregnancy pregnancy if the weight is unknown.

Senator Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, said that families should be able to demand one for every unborn child, regardless of weight or pregnancy age.

“Some doctors have interpreted the law as unaffordable to present a fetal death certificate if the gestational age is less than 20 weeks,” said Paxton.

She said her Senate Bill 466 only changes the definition of the fetal death certificate, so that families can demand one – without changing the existing law for the time if they are necessary so that access to funeral services is not restricted.

Raymond Meek, a man from North Texan who lives in Paxton's district, told the Senate State Committee that his daughter was born for 11 weeks during his wife's pregnancy last year.

A doctor for emergency rooms said the couple could not get a fetal death certificate because the pregnancy age was below 20 weeks, said Meek. Without them, burial companies have rejected his family.

“We were able to find a private burial company that my little girl could crave and allow us to mourn her and keep her properly without treating her as if it were medical waste,” said Meek. “Every parent who has lost his family who lost a child deserves to mourn his daughter or son properly.”

The committee did not vote on whether the bill is progressing.