To The Joint Legislative Committee On Insurance

My name is Maria Parker. I am the Associate Director of Public Policy for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the public policy office of the four Roman Catholic Dioceses in the Commonwealth.

I speak on behalf of the Conference in favor of "An Act Relative to Prenatal, Childbirth and Postpartum Care Benefits" (Senate Bill 743), which guarantees public and private insurance coverage for grief counseling and lactation counseling for mothers of stillborn children.

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to support this bill since it is pro-woman, pro-life, and pro-common sense.

This bill affirms the dignity of mothers whose children have died in the womb, and it recognizes the sanctity of the unborn child’s life and the profound sense of loss associated with the child’s prenatal death. Any mother who loses her child—whether the death occurs after birth or before birth—deserves compassionate support.

The unborn child is totally entrusted to the care and nurturing of the mother carrying the child in her womb. As a parent, the pregnant woman discovers the wonder of the new life growing within her. She feels the developing child move, listens to his or her heartbeat at the doctor’s office, brings the ultrasound image home to tape on the refrigerator, and thus from the beginning develops a bond unique among all other relationships, the bond of mother and child. Thus, it should be apparent to all just what a devastating blow it is to a mother who loses her child before birth.