The Day It Finally Happens by Mike Pearl

Author:Mike Pearl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

THE DAY A BABY IS BORN ON THE MOON

Likely in this century?

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No

Plausibility Rating

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4/5

Scary?

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If the cost of medical coverage doesn’t go down, it’s terrifying

Worth changing habits?

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Absolutely

“You may leave the delivery room at any time,” Nurse Collins kept telling her. “It’s your right.”

But of course Alexandria couldn’t just leave the delivery room. That made no sense. Sure, she could get up easily enough. That was the nice thing about the moon’s one-sixth gravity. Tasks like getting out of a hospital bed while in labor were a whole lot easier than on Earth. But where would she go?

It wouldn’t help to give birth in the hallway of Moon Base Hispaniola’s medical center, since Collins would still be there, ready with all her forms. She and Francisco could dart out the automatic doors of the lobby and then what? Birth the baby themselves in the middle of Concourse A? Were they supposed to hop on the tram back to their residential block, fill the bathtub, and perform a water birth? That would have been a terrible idea for a million reasons, only one of which is that it would use up a week’s worth of water.

Nope, she was stranded, and completely at the mercy of whatever these consent forms said. And they were long. According to the fine print in the Hispaniola Residential Compact, giving birth was considered elective medical care—never mind that once you’re pregnant, there’s nothing elective about giving birth. An abortion, unsurprisingly, would have been covered.

Alexandria had medical insurance, of course, through 3M, her employer. And 3M had never specifically mentioned anything about not covering the costs associated with delivery. Her brother Marco, a lawyer, had assured her that giving birth was technically legal on the moon. But the Hispaniola Council had convened, issued a nonbinding resolution stating their preference that she abort.

Alexandria felt the baby move. It was almost time. It took all her strength not to instinctively push.

“They’re making an example of us,” Francisco said. “They can’t make giving birth illegal, but they’ve found a loophole. They’re making it too expensive.”

“That’s not true,” said Marco. “This was codified years ago, before 3M ever put together these insurance policies with Aetna. They should have told you more clearly. You can get them to cover this.”

“What am I supposed to do? The baby’s coming!” Alexandria exclaimed.

The whole situation made no sense. How can you prevent the creation of another mouth to feed on the moon? They’d promised before she left that the Residential Compact enshrined all the same rights as the US Constitution. But it looked like they had built in a big penalty for giving birth: crippling medical debt.

“Just give me the forms! I’ll sign. I’ll sign.”

Nurse Collins handed Alexandria the clipboard, and she signed at the bottom. “And initial here,” Collins said. She did. “And here,” she added. Collins nodded to a gynecologist standing just outside the door, and she entered. A hospital administrator followed close behind with a very small camera.

“It’s for the media. They’ll want to see this back on Earth,” the administrator said.

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