Elizabeth Nolan Brown on Forcing Pregnant Women Into Surgery

Jennifer Goodall was about to have her fourth child when the
ordeal began. Having given birth to three previous children through
cesarean section—a surgical procedure that allows a baby to be
delivered through a woman’s abdomen—the Cape Coral, Florida, mother
wanted to try a natural delivery now. But in early
July, Bayfront Health Port Charlotte—the hospital where
Goodall had been planning on giving birth in about two weeks—told
her it wasn’t permitted. A letter from Bayfront’s chief financial
officer said if she attempted a “trial of labor,” the facility
would report her to the state’s Department of Children and Family
Services, seek a court order to perform the surgery anyway, and do
the procedure “with or without (her) consent” if she showed up at
the hospital. 

Goodall’s case is far from an anomaly, Elizabeth Nolan Brown
explains. At hospitals across the country, pregnant women are
banned from making fundamental decisions about their medical care
and coerced into compliance with threats of involving the state.
 

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