Doctor Gets Court Order to Confine Pregnant Woman Against Her Will
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With issues like the Stupak Amendment and Nevada’s Personhood Initiative in the national spotlight, I am aware that a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a fetus to full-term is under attack.
What I didn’t realize, perhaps naively, is that her right to choose how to carry a fetus is also under fire. Last March, Florida resident Samantha Burton was in week 25 of her pregnancy when she paid a visit to her doctor. Burton was showing signs of potential miscarriage, so her physician ordered bed rest. Burton explained that, as a working mother of two toddlers, bed rest simply wasn’t a viable option and then proceeded to ask for a second medical opinion. Seems reasonable, right?
Her doctor, however, was having none of that. Rather than refer Burton for the desired second opinion, he instead felt it necessary to contact state authorities, who then proceeded to force Burton to be admitted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital against her will and undergo any procedure the doctor felt like prescribing. When Burton had the audacity to request a change in the hospital in which she was being treated, the court denied her request. Three days into her forced hospitalization, Burton miscarried.
Never mind that there is actually no scientific research to support the claim that bed rest helps prevent preterm birth and that even the American College of of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not believe it should be routinely recommended. Never mind Burton’s very real concern for the care of her two small children. Never mind the psychological, physical, and financial toll this takes on her family. The only thing that mattered to the doctor and the government was that they got their (ultimately ineffectual) way.
Oh, and did I mention this case gets worse? Burton (with help from her pro bono lawyer and the ACLU) sued the State of Florida claiming it — duh — violated her constitutional rights. The court ruled against her, claiming that that State was merely maintaining “status quo” in the situation. Hmmm. I never knew forcing a woman to bed rest in a hospital was status quo. Perhaps I’ve been ill-informed.
It is scary to think that the government feels it can negate the bodily autonomy of pregnant women for any reason, let alone for something like this. Where does this stop? If a doctor lacking scientific support can force a woman into a hospital of his choosing for the tests of his choosing, what’s next? Certainly it seems as if the bar has been set pretty low in terms of the criteria needed to override a woman’s freedom to make informed decisions for herself.
Burton’ lawyers filed for appeal and the case is now being heard in Florida’s First District Court of Appeals. Hopefully, this time the court will acknowledge the bodily autonomy of pregnant women and reverse the lower court’s frightening and potentially dangerous ruling. I shudder to think of the consequences of the earlier decision being upheld.
Photo credit: Daquella Manera
Tip o’ the hat to my daughter Mary….
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This is no real surprise. I imagine it will continue to get worse until women have a “Wisconsin” moment and rise up. We are 51% of the population, why is the minority dictating to us?
I’m not shocked at all. Women are routinely considered public property and their physical autonomy denied as if it didn’t exist.
Women are denied abortion services or those services are made difficult to obtain. Women have various procedures forced upon them while pregnant or delivering. Women’s bodies are not considered their own before, during or after pregnancy. Catcalling, rape apologism, victim blaming, etc. are all symptoms of the same problem that caused this woman to have her rights denied by the state.
What is surprising is that she wasn’t jailed instead of hospitalized.
Well, well color me shocked about this happening.
There’s a sentence you wrote here, that needs just a teeny tiny tweak. Let me fix it for you ok. It’s scary to think the government feels it can negate the bodily autonomy of women. See you didn’t need all them extra words there, you could have saved yourself the energy it took to type them. Oh no, no yer welcome. I think I might just pimp Handmaid’s Tale all over the place, so people who have not read it and wept might get the chance to. It’s like an instruction manual for the forced birthers, the way Atlas Shrugged or 1984 is to the righties.
http://www.amazon.com/Handmaids-Tale-Margaret-Atwood/dp/038549081X