Reply #90: Oooh! Ooooh! A personal response!

[Nobody]

I sent an email and got the canned response and then I replied back that I was responding to the response. Here's the reply I got.

....from Del Cosgrove's office......

There have been several babies that have been abandoned in this region of Virginia in the last seveal years. I am not aware of an increase or decrease, but I am concerned about the babies. Just last year, a full term baby was delivered in this area and left on the snow to freeze and die. I do not believe that healthcare is the issue here. There are numerous avenues of free care for prenatal women, and hospitals in Virginia cannot turn away someone who cannot pay.

I don't have a magic wand that can cure all our societal ills, but if this bill may act as a deterent to the abandonment of one or more babies, then it will serve its purpose.

Thanks.

Delegate John A. Cosgrove
78th House of Delegates
[phone]

.....end of email.....

I edited out the personal info, but to give a bit of background, I was asking about why can't we cover pregnant women rather than criminalize someone who couldn't afford to have a stillbirth at the hospital where it's safer.

Now we're getting somewhere. Cosgrove is really worrying about abandoned babies rather than deal with the realities that cause women to abandon theor children. Women who are going to abandon their newborns should have somewhere non-judgemental to take them.

I will respond to this email and propose this.

By the way, the bold is mine