Question: Are there death certificates for stillbirths? What about for abortions?
Answer: No and no, said Janice Okubo, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health; the department’s Office of Health Status Monitoring “receives and preserves vital records (birth, death, civil union, marriage and divorce certificates) for events that occurred in Hawaii.
By statute, “for a baby, for a birth, to be issued a death certificate, they have to have been born alive. There has to have been a breath of life after the infant is born from the mother. So in the case of a fetal death, where there is a death in the womb before birth, they are not considered to be a live birth so they are not “issued a death certificate,” she said.
Stillbirths are categorized as fetal deaths. Abortions are not.
For abortions, Hawaii follows the federal government’s definition of “induced termination of pregnancy,” which “means the purposeful interruption of an intrauterine pregnancy with the intention other than to produce a live-born infant and which does not result in a live birth,” Okubo said. So again, no death certificate is issued because there was no live birth.
Fetal deaths and induced terminations are still registered with the health department. “They are reported to the DOH and we do record that information and use it to track public health trends and statistics and information,” she said.
Q: Does the IRS even help people with tax questions in person anymore? Every time I call I get nowhere and I can’t go online.
A: Yes, but you have to call and make an appointment first. Call (844) 545- 5640 to make an appoint- ment at the nearest Taxpayer Assistance Center. That’s a toll-free number. Calling the Honolulu office directly, which you apparently tried, is not the way to do it. For other readers: The IRS does emphasize that most tax questions can be answered online or by phone. Start your search at irs.gov.
Q: I heard that after that shooting parents are trying to buy bullet-proof backpacks for their kids. Is that for real?
A: Yes. Sales of Kevlar backpacks soared after the mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people on Wednesday, according to news reports. Sales increase after every school shooting, but orders this time seemed especially high, perhaps because it was widely reported that some students who survived the rampage hid behind Kevlar sheets.
The students were in a room used by the school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps; the Kevlar sheets are used in the JROTC’s marksmanship program. However, the gunman did not actually enter the room where those students were hiding, CNN reported. For a generation of American children sickeningly familiar with the threat of gun violence on campus, for whom “active shooter” drills (run, hide, fight) are a regular occurrence, parents’ willingness to buy anything that might shield them from harm doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
Mahalo
On Feb. 13, after shopping at Mililani Walmart and stowing my purchases in the trunk of my car, I realized that my keys were in the pocket of the cardigan that I had just shut away in the trunk along with my purchases. I walked back into Walmart and Rona, in customer service, helped me get through to my car insurance company and a locksmith. She patiently and calmly helped me navigate the intricacies of my cell phone, when my stressed mind couldn’t. (I like my land-line phone, and use my cell phone mainly for emergencies, or when I’m away from home). Thank you so much, Rona, for helping me through a stressful situation. May many blessings come your way! — Grateful senior
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
