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ICYMI
ICYMI: New Report From ProPublica Reveals Florida Courts Are Forcing Pregnant People to Undergo Unwanted C-Sections
ICYMI: New Report From ProPublica Reveals Florida Courts Are Forcing Pregnant People to Undergo Unwanted C-Sections
New reporting from ProPublica this week shows that pregnant patients in Florida have been ordered by the courts to undergo cesarean sections against their wishes—highlighting the dangerous consequences of policies that elevate anti-abortion interests over pregnant people’s medical autonomy.
Cherise Doyley was in active labor when hospital staff brought a tablet to her bedside so she could appear before a judge from her hospital bed without a lawyer present. The judge informed her that “the state had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest”—not out of concern for Doyley, but in the interest of her unborn child. He described the circumstances as “extraordinary.”
Doyley had previously undergone three C-sections, one of which resulted in a hemorrhage, and explicitly stated she did not want to endure another one. But the decision was taken out of her hands. In a post-Dobbs Florida, how she would give birth was now in the hands of a judge.
Doyley’s case is not an isolated incident. ProPublica found that Brianna Bennett, another woman in Florida, faced a nearly identical situation just a year and a half earlier: “The similarities in their cases were striking. Both women had three prior C-sections. They had questioned the need for their previous surgeries and arrived prepared to fight for vaginal births. And both women are Black.”
Like Doyley, Bennett was forced into a virtual court hearing from her hospital bed after refusing a cesarean section numerous times over a 24-hour period, asking those present, “‘Are any of you gonna help me bathe or shower? Are you gonna help change my pad? Are you gonna help lift the baby out of the bed and put me in the bed because I can’t lift my legs? Is anyone going to help me?’” State attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit Jack Campbell said he felt the hearing was necessary to “save two lives.”
These cases illustrate the dangerous precedent created when courts and hospitals have the authority to override pregnant patients’ medical decisions. As ProPublica reported, “Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment.”
They also reflect the broader policy environment in Florida—a state where anti-abortion lawmakers have long sought to embed so-called “fetal personhood” ideology into law, seeking to extend legal rights to embryos and fetuses.
The impact of these policies falls disproportionately on Black women and birthing people, and the stories of these two women in Florida underscore the deep-seated racism and medical bias underpinning the United States’ health care system. A 2022 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective found that Black women in the South faced barriers like discrimination in the health care system, lack of information and access, and poor quality of services when seeking reproductive health care.
No judge is more qualified than a pregnant person to make decisions about their bodies or pregnancy outcomes. Yet anti-abortion extremists are systemically shifting power away from patients and providers into the hands of judges and politicians. They will continue to put the health, dignity, and autonomy of pregnant people on the line to advance their agenda.
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For over 55 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.