Miscarriage is 'just some mess on a napkin,' state lawmaker says in debate over fetal remains bill

Pennsylvania state Rep. Wendy Ullman (D) made a crude and dismissive remark about the nature of early miscarriage Tuesday, while discussing the details of a fetal remains bill she opposes, according to the Daily Caller.

 

The discussion was about House Bill 1890, the Final Disposition of Fetal Remains Act. The bill sets forth regulations for the proper handling of fetal remains and imposes penalties for violating those regulations.

Ullman, who opposes the bill, emphasized her disagreement with the bill's definition of the term "unborn child," which is defined as an "individual organism of the species homo sapiens from fertilization until expulsion or extraction from its mother."

"It refers specifically to the product of conception after fertilization, which covers an awful lot of territory," Ullman said. "I think we all understand the concept of the loss of a fetus, but we're also talking about a woman who comes into a facility and is having cramps and — not to be — not to be — concrete — an early miscarriage is just some mess on a napkin, and I'm not sure people would agree that this is something that we would want to take to the point of ritual, either cremation or interment."

The bill would require health care facilities that possess fetal remains to "provide for the final disposition of the fatal remains in accordance with the burial and transit permit requirements" in state law, and "cremate or inter the fetal remains."

The issue of disposition of fetal remains became a national headline topic recently, as more than 2,000 fetal remains were found on the Illinois property of an Indiana abortion doctor after he died.

Some were found in his garage, others in the trunk of his truck, being chemically preserved in small, sealed plastic bags.