C-Section Mom Faces Another Charge

[GalvestonDuck]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,114302,00.html

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY — The mother accused of homicide for not getting a Caesarean section that could have saved her unborn twin's life also faces a child-endangerment charge for the twin that survived.

Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, looking bedraggled in a jail jumpsuit, appeared in court via a video teleconference from jail Monday to plead innocent to criminal homicide.

She faced a new hearing Tuesday on a child-endangerment charge relating to the surviving twin, who prosecutors said had cocaine and alcohol in her system. The baby girl has since been adopted.

Prosecutors claim Rowland refused medical advise to undergo a C-section for delivery of her twins and as a result one was stillborn. They said she did not want a scar from the surgery.

Rowland denied that she refused a C-section. She said she was told during repeated hospital visits that her babies were fine and was never told she needed emergency surgery.

Rowland has been in jail since shortly after the Jan. 13 deliveries, and authorities are investigating allegations that from jail she tried to arrange adoption of the baby boy — even though he was stillborn — to raise bail.

Rowland has a previous child endangerment conviction, stemming from a 2000 incident in which she punched another daughter in the face for eating a candy bar in a supermarket without paying for it.

Some see the latest prosecution as a political ploy or somehow connected with the debate over abortion.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said Utah prosecutors were making the political decision to promote the rights of a fetus over the rights of its mother.

Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom and his deputy, Kent Morgan, who is handling the case, deny that either political or abortion considerations entered into their decision to pursue the case.

"None of our decisions are political," said Yocom. "We take the case as the police give it to us. It's not about any groups. We don't make political decisions," he told The Salt Lake Tribune.

[furluvcats]

This woman is waste....lock her up...and hopefullt rehabilitate her...Pray she is fixable.