Understanding Pennsylvania’s Proposed Bill on Handling Fetal Remains
Q: Did Pennsylvania lawmakers vote to “fine” women who miscarry?
A: No. But a bill proposes to mandate that health care providers bury or cremate fetal remains, regardless of when or how the pregnancy ends. Experts say such requirements could translate to additional costs for women or their insurers.
FULL QUESTION
“PA Legislature fines women for Miscarry”
Is this a true statement?
FULL ANSWER
Legislation in Pennsylvania recently advanced by Republican state lawmakers on a committee would require that miscarriages or abortions handled at health care facilities be treated as fetal deaths and be followed by a burial or cremation — regardless of how long the pregnancy lasted.
The matter is likely moot: Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement the same day that he “will veto any anti-choice legislation that lands on my desk.”
But viral social media posts criticizing the bill, HB 118, have prompted some readers to ask whether lawmakers voted to “fine” women who experience a miscarriage.
One reader by a U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Democrat Val Arkoosh, that reads: “
