Miscarriage certificates, similar to birth certificates, could soon be issued in Louisiana

Louisiana would start issuing “commemorative certificates” for miscarriages — documents that closely resemble birth certificates given out when babies are born — under legislation that looks likely to become law. 

House Bill 457, sponsored by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, encourages doctors to tell people who lost pregnancies at 20 weeks or earlier that they are entitled to a government-issued certificate commemorating the event. 

Like a government-issued birth certificate, this miscarriage certificate would be required to list the name and gender of the lost fetus if that information is known.

If no name is given, the state vital records staff would be required to list Baby, Baby Boy or Baby Girl in the first-name slot on the certificate. The last name of the person who lost the pregnancy would also be automatically assigned to the fetus and included on the document.

The miscarriage certificate would have a disclaimer that it is not “proof of a live birth,” and the state would be prohibited from using these documents to calculate live birth statistics.

But Crews pulled back on that mandate early in the legislative process, changing his bill’s language to allow doctors and other medical professionals to choose whether they talk about the certificates with their patients.

The bill has already gotten approval from the Louisiana House and the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare. It now awaits a vote from the full Senate and consideration from Gov. John Bel Edwards.