Letter: Miscarriage is normal, not a crime

In the late 1970s, I was a New Hampshire state legislator. One day, as I was listening to the debate, I felt sharp back pain and a warm gush between my legs. As a mother of three who had had other miscarriages or, what doctors call “spontaneous abortions,” I knew exactly what was happening. I rose from my chair and exited the nearest door in front of 400 pairs of eyes. Hansel and Gretel dropped cookie crumbs, but in the legislative halls, I dribbled blood. Too graphic? Too explicit? Miscarriage is part of life.

One out of every four pregnancies ends in a spontaneous abortion. Unless we face the facts that nature has her ways, we might pretend that every miscarriage is a willful act. The guard at the door kindly acknowledged my situation. The governor’s secretary whom I met in the ladies’ room ran home to lend me a clean skirt and gave me a quarter to buy a sanitary napkin. When I returned, my colleagues treated me with kindness and sympathy. If this had happened today, I think half of the legislators would want me in jail or punished because I was unable to control nature. Perhaps if more legislators learned the real facts of life they would not punish women whose bodies follow the rules of nature. Bodies reject pregnancies. We find out why or we don’t, but women need care and caring. Let’s not add demonization to disappointment.

Ruth Nemzoff

Sanbornton