Never mind that the motivations for this policy are not exactly All About the Babies, but rather as much about reducing cost (morbidity is so much more expensive than mortality!), or that it is enormously insulting to women and doctors. Never mind that the group that first pushed for these "hard stop" policies regarding early term delivery has written a new paper that essentially says "Oops, it looks like people may be construing this a bit too strictly:" Our concern is that a misinterpretation both of our policies and of the nature of our specialty's opposition to purely elective early term deliveries may result in inappropriate reluctance to deliver women who are at risk for serious complications...How close must the blood pressure be to 160/110 mm Hg level to justify delivery at 37 weeks gestation or even before? How poorly controlled must the diabetes mellitus of a noncompliant patient be to justify delivery at 38 weeks' gestation? In the absence of hard data to guide the clinician, physician judgment and informed consent will continue to play a major role in such cases. No, never mind all that. The hospital administration is too spooked by the fact that this policy is now STATE LAW! to allow for scheduling me for delivery prior to 39 weeks. And that was the occasion of my first full-on Ugly Cry in a doctor's office. I have a lot more to say about less-than-39-week hard stop policies in general and the legislating of them in particular,