Doctors and Nurses Are Increasingly Helping Criminalize Pregnant Women and Mothers

‘These days Christine Taylor probably thinks twice before confiding in medical personnel. In 2010, when Taylor was 22 and pregnant, she fell down a flight of stairs and sought treatment at an Iowa hospital. During her physical exam she confided to hospital staff that she felt ambivalent about being pregnant. Her husband had recently abandoned her and her other two children, leaving her without family or friends in Iowa. Struggling and without support, Taylor’s feelings were understandable, but if she felt relief for having shared them it wouldn’t last long.
Although the fall did not appear to harm the fetus hospital workers alerted the police to Taylor’s admission. She was questioned, arrested, and spent two days in jail while her young children were left alone. Prosecutors initially considered charging her with attempted feticide, defined as an intentional effort to terminate pregnancy after the end of the second trimester, but backed off when they discovered that she hadn’t passed the six-month mark.’
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