The Fellowship of the Bill – Part 9

This is the final installment in the story of Michigan’s nine-year journey toward a law to license Certified Professional Midwives. The story begins HERE. The entire series can be accessed HERE.

Part 9

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About this panel

The Senate floor and House concurrence votes would have been a more striking triumph if more of the Fellowship had been awake for them (Frame 1). Eowyn’s thought bubble is an oblique tribute to this famous Far Side cartoon.

Michigan’s Governor Snyder is represented here as Galadriel (Frame 2) just to give someone the opportunity to repeat the character’s famous speech:

The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.

Sing it, Sister! Also, “Governor Galadriel” has a nice ring to it. The time span between the passage of the bill and the Governor’s signature seemed endless (Frame 3). The Yule feast pictured in Frame 4 is not only an outright  invention, but casually borrowed from a tour of New Zealand Lord of the Rings filming locations. In return, we suggest you check out tours at MikeTheGuide.com and make a point of stopping at the Green Dragon Inn near the Hobbiton Movie Set.

The Governor finally signed the bill early in 2017, a cause for great celebration (Frame 4). If you know anything about Michigan, you’ll appreciate the celebration did not take place shortly following the signing, but much later in the year on another equally beautiful – and much warmer – Lake Michigan beach.

Is this successful enactment of the bill the end of the Fellowship? Probably not. A portion of its membership is ensconced on the new state Board of Licensed Midwifery – portrayed here by a photo of a 1949 committee of the Florida State Prison system. A future effort to guarantee Medicaid coverage for Licensed Midwife care has also not been ruled out. For the meantime, the Fellowship is returned to its daily routines. Babies are born. Parents are created. Midwives are credentialed. Life goes on.

The End

P.S. A more detailed look at the Fellowship’s experience with US-MERA is available at I Have An Elixir to Sell You.

 

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