Unintended Consequences of Legislation?
Mother charged with murder denies accusationsSALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The woman at the center of a fetal murder case who allegedly refused a Caesarean section that doctors said would have saved one of her babies denied in a jailhouse interview Friday that she killed the fetus.
Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, rejected claims she refused the surgery because of cosmetic worries. "It was all medical concern. None of it was vanity," Rowland told The Associated Press a day after prosecutors charged her with exhibiting "depraved indifference to human life" in avoiding the C-section. "I never imagined having a stillborn would get me national news coverage or a murder charge," Rowland told the AP during a 30-minute interview at the Salt Lake County jail.
Rowland, who has been in the jail since mid-January on a child endangerment charge involving the surviving twin, said she was informed of the murder charge Thursday evening by reporters. "I feel like I'm getting a lot of attention that (should be) my private business," she said. 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 or take some other action that endangers a fetus.
"It reaches a level that is extraordinary in our legal understanding of bodily integrity and what that means in this country," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women and a former prosecutor.
At no time did doctors tell her she needed an emergency procedure, she said, adding she would have had no objections to a C-section since she had two previous ones during the births of her other two young children, ages 7 and 9, who live with the parents of Rowland's estranged husband. She said she was never concerned about her babies' health because in all her hospital visits, she was told they had good heartbeats and were fine.
Rowland's court-appointed attorney, Michael Sikora, did not return two phone calls seeking comment, but has said that Rowland had a history of mental issues, though he was awaiting medical records for confirmation. Rowland said she had twice attempted suicide and spent time in a psychiatric hospital.
The case has won national attention over its potential legal ramifications on the debate over fetal rights. "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 NOW's Gandy.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which gives a fetus separate victim's rights in the event of an attack on a pregnant woman. The bill, prompted by the murder of Laci Peterson's son, was hailed by conservative groups as an affirmation of the legal rights of the unborn.
About 30 states, including Utah, have made attempts, most of them unsuccessful, to prosecute women for behavior affecting their fetuses, most of it drug-related, Gandy said.
In a case reminiscent of Rowland's, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in 1990 on a case involving a terminal cancer patient who died after a lower court ordered doctors to perform a C-section on her to save her 26-week-old fetus, who died after the operation. The surgery was listed as a contributing factor in the woman's death.
The court ruled that a pregnant patient's decision to refuse medical treatment is almost always paramount, even when survival of a fetus is at stake and wrote, "a fetus cannot have rights ... superior to those of a person who has already been born."
In January, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that unborn children at all stages of development are covered under the state's criminal homicide statute. That statute, however, exempts the death of an unborn child caused by an abortion.
posted by Richard at
Saturday, March 13, 2004
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