Families experiencing pregnancy loss are not always given clear information about what respectful options may be available to them.
Practices and information can differ between healthcare institutions and jurisdictions. As a result, families may find themselves trying to discover what can be done at precisely the time when they are least prepared to search for answers.
The issue is not that every family should make the same choice. It is that families should receive enough clear information to make an informed choice of their own.
The Journi May Dignity Initiative is intended to improve information, compassionate care, and respectful choice following pregnancy loss.
It does not propose that every family respond to pregnancy loss in the same way. It does not require burial, cremation, a religious ceremony, or any particular form of memorialization.
It does not prescribe a particular religious, cultural, medical, or personal understanding of pregnancy loss.
Nor is the initiative intended to reopen Canada’s abortion law. Its focus is on what happens after a pregnancy loss has occurred: whether families are given clear information about lawful options and whether they are treated with compassion and dignity.
Different families will make different choices. The purpose of the initiative is that those choices should be informed and respected.
The initiative proposes a Pregnancy Loss Dignity Protocol to establish a clearer and more compassionate approach to information and support following pregnancy loss. At its core, the protocol would encourage institutions to provide clear written information, compassionate communication, and appropriate faith and cultural accommodation.
Families should be informed about the lawful options available to them rather than being expected to know which questions to ask. Where applicable, those options may include burial, cremation, memorialization, spiritual or cultural support, and other respectful arrangements.
The focus is on better policies and practices, not on prescribing how families must respond to pregnancy loss.
The Purpose of the Initiative
The Journi May Dignity Initiative seeks to ensure that families experiencing pregnancy loss receive compassionate communication, clear written information, and meaningful choices about the respectful care and remembrance of their child.
Its purpose is simple: families should understand what options are available to them and be treated with dignity and compassion at a profoundly difficult time.
The Problem
The Pregnancy Loss Dignity Protocol
The Parliamentary Path
What the Initiative Does Not Propose
The first formal federal step is House of Commons e-petition e-7765, sponsored by Jeff Kibble, Member of Parliament for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford.
The petition asks the Government of Canada to develop and implement a Pregnancy Loss Dignity Protocol within areas of federal jurisdiction and to encourage provinces and territories to review relevant pregnancy-loss policies and practices.
The petition provides a parliamentary pathway for bringing the proposal before the federal government while respecting the different responsibilities of federal, provincial, and territorial authorities.
Beyond the Petition
The petition is an important first step, but lasting change will also require engagement beyond the federal government.
The initiative will encourage provincial and territorial governments, health authorities, hospitals, clinics, professional organizations, faith communities, and other relevant institutions to review how information and choices are communicated to families experiencing pregnancy loss.
The objective is practical: to encourage clearer, more compassionate policies and practices wherever families may encounter pregnancy loss.