Miscarriages

* In response to “Drive-By Attack Seen As ‘Fetus Murder’ Test Case,� June 20:

I have had six miscarriages, all 20 weeks or under. Although death certificates are not issued for the loss of a fetus prior to 20 weeks without a petition from a physician, my husband and I chose to seek death certificates and held memorial services after the three latest losses because we felt these rituals validated both the life and death of our children lost to miscarriage.

You see, miscarriage is not recognized in our society as a death. The pain and grief experienced by families who suffer miscarriage are invalidated by a society that views our losses as non-losses or merely inconveniences, that uses terms for our babies like “products of conception,� that expects those of us who have miscarriages to lose the baby, and then quietly go back to work or home to cook dinner, get on with it, and chalk it all up to “just one of those things.� It is hard to reconcile that the state considers the loss of a fetus by gunshot to be a punishable death but the loss of my babies through miscarriage does not even warrant a death certificate.

KAREN K. CAMPBELL

Carlsbad