Pregnant Women are second class citizens
Rixa has some interesting insights about birth politics in the US.
QUOTE: (Yes, gun to your head obstetrics is happening in America)
“Ms. P was continuing her labor at home when there was a knock on the door. She opened the door to the local sheriff, who was a friend of hers and a member of her church. The sheriff said, “I’m really terribly sorry, Ms. P, but I have here a warrant for your arrest.” Shocked, Ms. P said, “What on earth for?” The sheriff answered, “I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know what the hell is going on. My orders are to take you to the hospital, in handcuffs if necessary.”
Against her wishes and the repeated objections of her husband, Ms. P was taken to the hospital, taken to the surgery ward, tied down on an operating table, and given a forced C-section. The story doesn’t end here. Ms. P and her husband sued the doctors and the hospital. However, in Florida a judge must decide if a case deserves to go to trial, and another local judge decided that Ms. P’s case was not worthy of proceeding, so her case never went to trial—a shocking miscarriage of justice, given the serious violation of Ms. P’s basic rights. Since then, Ms. P has had another baby, born vaginally at home with no problems. Needless to say, there was no visit to the hospital during the labor.
It is important that women in this country become aware of the danger to birthing women and join the movement to protect them. Ms. P’s fam­ily’s wishes were not honored, and her body was invaded against her will. Her human rights were violated…. Treating pregnant women in this manner goes against the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Accord, which explicitly state an individual has absolute rights over her or his own body and no medical treat­ment can ever be forced. Cases like this indicate a dangerous trend in U.S. maternity care toward totalitarian control of a woman’s reproductive life by doctors.
Here is a link to the case of Laura Pemberton.
References:
Samuels TA, Minkoff H, Feldman J, Awonuga A, Wilson TE. “Obstetricians, health attorneys, and court-ordered cesarean sections.” Womens Health Issues. 2007 Mar-Apr;17(2): 107-14.
Veronika E.B. Kolder, Janet Gallagher, and Michael T. Parsons. “Court-Ordered Obstetrical Interventions.” NEJM 316.19 (May 7, 1987): 1192-1196.
Patient’s Rights: issues in Risk Management
Marsden Wagner. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First (University of California Press: 2006).”
Jenny Hatch