The Fellowship of the Bill – Part 8

This is the continuing story of Michigan’s nine-year journey toward a law to license Certified Professional Midwives. The first installment of the story is HERE.

Part 8

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While Michigan was toiling towards Mordor, other states continued to enact CPM licensure measures (Frame 1). The big surprise of 2013 was Indiana, a highly punitive state whose midwives had long been forced underground. Rhode Island regularized its midwives’ legal status in 2014, followed by Maryland in 2015. In 2016, Maine became the 30^th state to license CPMs. The licensure acts just listed were evaluated by the Fellowship with mixed results, but the chief worry was that Michigan would be the very last state to pass such a measure.

Like the many-limbed Shelob, numerous entities and factors continued to threaten the Michigan bill (Frame 2). The medical lobby was joined in its opposition by the primary Michigan maternal and child health organization. Each Senate committee member had to be laboriously courted. Both majority and minority parties displayed their foibles, and the Fellowship hardly dared to shake its piggy bank. But the primary foe was time. Fellowship members regularly heard nightmare voices proclaiming the death of the bill.

After some heavy-duty compromising, the Fellowship was pleased to see its hard work pay off. When the bill passed out of Senate committee, it nevertheless felt like a miracle (Frame 3). Boromir, not being a midwife herself, developed a belief in the persuasive power of the “Midwife Voice.” At any rate, that’s how she explained the vote – and her own surprised willingness to take on tasks following Fellowship meetings.

It was late 2016. The legislative session was anticipated to end at an unnamed December date. Would the bill receive a Senate floor vote? Texts once again flew back and forth (Frame 4) between Fellowship members, Gandalf, Senate staffers, and anyone whose opinion might carry weight with Senate leadership. A failure would mean beginning all over again the following session, a prospect that filled the Fellowship – and its empty pockets – with dread.

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