This is a case probably everyone has heard about, so I hesitated to post the
article. I can't imagine someone hearing a repeated warning about the safety
of her children and refusing to have a procedure on anything other than
religious grounds. It's hard to believe she was in her right mind. So, yes, I
find this woman repugnant, if indeed the news stories characterizing her
behavior are accurate.
However.
If we are to allow women the right to terminate their pregnancy by abortion, a
forced procedure, then who are we to deny a woman the right to refuse medical
intervention when the pregnancy is at risk from natural causes? If we are
comfortable saying, keep your laws off of my body, then we must accept we
cannot control the actions of a pregnant mother, no matter what the effect on
the child, or the eventual burden placed on society for that damaged child.
This case is doubly troubling in that the mother may have a significant history
of mental illness. Do we have the right to control a woman's pregnancy if she
is possibly a danger to herself?
-x
Woman in C-Section Case Denies Vanity
Mar 13, 6:20 PM (ET)
By ALEXANDRIA SAGE
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A woman charged with murder for allegedly refusing a
Caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin said she never imagined
having a stillborn child would result in prosecution or national news coverage.
"I feel like I'm getting a lot of attention that (should be) my private
business," Melissa Ann Rowland told The Associated Press during a jail
interview Friday.
Prosecutors this week charged Rowland with exhibiting "depraved indifference to
human life" in avoiding the C-section. One nurse told police Rowland said she
would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."
Rowland denied claims she avoided surgery because she feared scarring.
"It was all medical concern. None of it was vanity," Rowland said. Her other
two young children, ages 7 and 9, both were delivered by C-section, she said.
Her attorney, meanwhile, said she had a long history of mental illness. Rowland
said she had attempted suicide twice and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.
Rowland, 28, who has been jailed since mid-January on a child endangerment
charge involving the surviving twin, said she was informed of the murder charge
Thursday evening by reporters.
Critics of the charges say the case could affect abortion rights and open the
door to the prosecution of mothers who smoke, fail to follow their
obstetrician's diet advice or take some other action that endangers a fetus.
"I see this as part of an overall focus of a certain movement on fetal rights
and an effort to elevate fetal rights above the rights of a woman," said Kim
Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women and a former prosecutor.
A phone message left at the headquarters for the National Right to Life
Committee seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Rowland, from the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan, was warned numerous
times between Christmas and Jan. 9 that her unborn twins were likely to die if
she did not get immediate medical treatment, charging documents allege. When
she delivered them Jan. 13, a baby girl survived but her twin, a boy, was
stillborn.
Rowland was charged with criminal homicide. She said the child endangerment
charge stems from allegations that the surviving baby girl had drugs and
alcohol in her system, which Rowland denies.
The baby has been adopted by a family Rowland knows. Her other children live
with her estranged husband's parents.
Rowland's attorney, Michael Sikora, called a C-section major surgery and told
The Salt Lake Tribune "it would come as no surprise that a woman with major
mental illness would fear it."
Prosecutors allege that Rowland told a nurse during a January visit to a
hospital that doctors wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone" and
she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."
Rowland denied making the statements, but remembers that hospital visit
as "very stressful. Doctors there had me very upset." She was concerned about
her recovery time and the nature of the surgery, she said.
She said she was never concerned about her babies' health because in all her
hospital visits, she was told the babies had good heartbeats and were fine.
Caesarean sections usually involve delivery through a surgical incision in the
abdomen and front wall of the uterus. They are generally not vertical and can
be done in the bikini incision, according to Dr. Christian Morgan, a family
practice doctor who regularly performs C-sections at the University of Utah
Health Sciences Center.
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