Anti-abortion bill could require death certificates and burials for fertilised eggs

The bill's sponsor says the provisions are 'strictly voluntary' for women, but public health advocates say this is misleading

A fertilised egg. Under new proposals, remains of fertilised eggs could have to be buried or cremated. (Medicalgraphics.de)

Anti-abortion politicians in Pennsylvania want to redefine foetal death as starting at conception, public health advocates claim, and force healthcare providers to cremate or bury all remains.

Pennsylvania law currently states that foetal death as the "expulsion or extraction of the product of conception" after 16 weeks’ gestation.

But the new bill would remove the 16-week time marker - which experts believe would change the definition of foetal death to include fertilised eggs that don't implant.

One interpretation of the law highlighted by Vice suggests that it could force healthcare providers to issue death certificates for aborted or miscarried foetuses, and even fertilised eggs that do not implant in the uterus, then bury or cremate them.

The Pennsylvania Final Disposition of Fetal Remains Act states all fertilised eggs are unborn children, and is similar to legislation signed into law by Vice President Mike Pence as Indiana governor in 2016, which mandated that miscarried or aborted foetuses by cremated or buried.

There is a key flaw in the proposed law - detection. Only half a woman’s fertilised eggs will naturally implant in her uterus, and the rest will dissolve in the body and be expelled through the menstrual cycle.

Newly fertilised eggs are about the size of a pinhead. The only time a fertilised egg that hasn't implanted in the uterus is detectable is if a woman has an ectopic pregnancy.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists calls non-implanted but fertilised eggs single-cell zygotes, and does not consider it a pregnancy until it’s implanted in the uterus.

Only when it reaches the nine-week stage in the uterus is it referred to as a foetus.

The sponsor of the bill, Francis Ryan, a Republican, insists the provisions are "strictly voluntary" for women, but public health advocates say this is misleading.

Christine Castro, a lawyer at the state’s Women’s Law Project, said: "The bill is written in a misleading way. No, it does not explicitly mandate a death certificate (but) it explicitly mandates a burial permit, and you need a death certificate to obtain a burial permit."

She described the bill as being like a "Russian doll", adding: "You have to keep unpacking it to see what’s really inside."