Abstract This article critically analyses the recent move by registrars in most Australian jurisdictions to begin issuing ‘certificates of recognition’ for early pregnancy loss. Most immediately, these new certificates have arisen from advocacy by mothers grieving a pregnancy loss. Such advocacy reflects contemporary practices of grieving and memorialisation, themselves a product of social and technological changes in recent decades. In this context, grieving parents have called for greater legal recognition of pregnancy loss in various ways. In other areas of law and other jurisdictions their calls have been met with controversy and debate regarding the implications of such recognition. However, the new ‘certificates of recognition’ have attracted almost no public interest or concern, and have been initiated without any formal change to registration law or regulations. To understand registrars’ willingness to hear and answer the call of these grieving mothers, this article traces the history of registration law vis-à-vis pregnancy loss in Australia. Historically, as a means to monitor and address the declining fertility rate of white women, expanded registration of birth and pregnancy loss has reflected colonial anxieties around population and race. Such anxieties became expressed in discourses and interventions focused on public health, and the ‘saving’ of infants valuable to the nation: by echoing the calls of grieving mothers, registrars are arguably speaking for and to this broader nation. Just like the reforms subject to greater debate and feminist scrutiny, then, registration law and practice contribute to new understandings of pregnancy and pregnancy loss, by telling us all what ‘counts’ officially as a birth, a loss, or a life.

中文翻译：

---

在澳大利亚证明怀孕损失：注册，认可和殖民地国家

摘要本文对大多数澳大利亚司法管辖区的注册服务商最近采取的行动进行了批判性分析，该行动开始为早孕流产颁发“认可证书”。最直接的是，这些新证书源于母亲因怀有怀孕损失而进行的倡导。这种倡导反映了当代的哀悼和纪念行为，它们本身就是近几十年来社会和技术变革的产物。在这种情况下，悲伤的父母呼吁以各种方式加大对怀孕损失的法律承认。在法律的其他领域和其他司法管辖区，他们的呼吁引起了关于这种承认的含义的争议和辩论。但是，新的“认可证书”几乎没有引起公众的关注或关注，并已在未对注册法律或法规进行任何正式更改的情况下启动。为了了解注册服务商愿意听取并回答这些悲痛母亲的呼吁，本文追溯了澳大利亚针对怀孕流失而制定的注册法的历史。从历史上看，作为监测和解决白人妇女生育率下降的一种手段，出生和怀孕损失的增加登记已反映出人口和种族周围的殖民地焦虑。这种焦虑在针对公共卫生以及“挽救”对国家有价值的婴儿的论述和干预中表达出来：通过回应悲痛的母亲的呼吁，注册服务机构可以说是为这个更广阔的国家代言的。就像需要更多辩论和女性主义审查的改革一样，