ACLU press release (8/3): ACLU Asks Florida Court to Protect the Rights of Pregnant Women to Refuse Medical Care
“Women do not give up their right to determine the course of their own medical care when they become pregnant,” said Diana Kasdan, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “Faced with similar cases, courts throughout the country have made clear that pregnant women have a right to make decisions about their own health, including refusing medical care.”
In March 2009, the Circuit Court of Leon County ordered Samantha Burton – a mother of two suffering from pregnancy complications – to be indefinitely confined to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and forced to undergo any and all medical treatments deemed necessary to save her fetus. After three days of state-compelled hospitalization, Ms. Burton suffered fetal demise and was released from the hospital.
“We should all be alarmed by Florida’s wholly unwarranted intervention in Samantha Burton’s care,” said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida. “Not only is it unconstitutional for the state to override a pregnant woman’s decision to refuse medical treatment, but the medical community, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Women’s Association, and the American Medical Association, strongly advises against it.”