You can't cut open pregnant women because you disagree with their choices

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/pregnant-women-forced-c-section
You can't cut open pregnant women because you disagree with their choices
The same thinking behind 'personhood' arguments is being used to force pregnant women to have surgery against their will
Jessica Valenti
theguardian.com
Friday 23 May 2014 07.30 EDT

Having a doctor perform surgery on you without permission – literally cutting into you while you protest – is the stuff of which horror movies are made. Yet that's just what happened to 35-year-old Rinat Dray when a doctor at Staten Island University Hospital performed a C-section on the Brooklyn mother, against her will and verbal protests...

...The National Advocates for Pregnant Women compiled a report of 413 cases between 1973 and 2005 in which pregnant women – strictly because they were pregnant – had their physical liberty infringed upon (including 30 incidents of forced C-sections or other medical interventions).

When Laura Pemberton refused a C-section in Florida in 1996, for example, she was taken into custody by a sheriff and state's attorney who showed up at her house. Her legs were strapped and she was forced to go to the hospital for surgery. Tellingly, she was given no representation but a lawyer was appointed to her fetus. When Pemberton later sued for civil rights violations, the US district court in Florida ruled against her, saying that her rights were outweighed by the state's interest "in preserving the life of the unborn child".

For women who managed to avoid forced surgery, there are other nightmares that await. Melissa Rowland was pregnant with twins when she rejected her doctor's advice to have a C-section. After she gave birth to a girl and a stillborn boy, she was arrested and charged with murder. (Treating women as criminals for what they do during pregnancy is not uncommon – Dray was told that refusing the C-section was child abuse and that her child would be taken away from her.) ....

MORE at above link

[CrispyQ]

1. We are going backwards at a frightening rate. -nt

[Lunacee_2013]

2. O.M.G.

That's all I can say, really, those stories sound like nightmares! God, I hope I never get pregnant. No bio-kids for me, no thanks! I think I'll just do adoption if I want a child.