COMMONWEALTH COURT WILL DECIDE FATE OF PA MIDWIVES
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Nearly 1,000 people gathered at the State Capitol today in support of Lancaster County midwife, Diane Goslin, who was appealing a cease and desist order from the PA Board of Medicine handed down last September.
The Board of Medicine found Mrs. Goslin in violation of the Medical Practice Act of 1985 for "practicing medicine without a license." The Board based it's finding on the assertion that midwifery constitutes the practice of medicine. Goslin has never been charged with negligence or endangerment.Mrs. Goslin is a Certified Professional Midwife - a certification which is recognized in 23 other states. She has practiced midwifery in Pennsylvania for 25 years and has attended over 5,000 births.
Goslin's appeal was heard by all seven judges of the Commonwealth Court in the Supreme Court room of the Capitol. They will now decide whether or not the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine correctly concluded that anyone assisting a women in childbirth is practicing medicine.
A decision is not expected for at least a week.Goslin's attorney, James Kutz, said, "This is a case where your fundamental freedoms run headlong into government regulation.""The judges had some very important questions," said Betty-Anne Daviss, co-author of the largest study ever conducted to assess the safety of homebirth. "Namely, they wanted to know if a woman has a Constitutional right to birth her baby at home with whom she wants." Daviss pointed out that governments in both Canada and Great Britain are working to expand public access to midwives like Diane and, by so doing, are seeing a decrease in maternal and infant mortality rates in those countries.
Goslin's lawyers argued in a courtroom packed with 250 supporters, according to James Strickler, President of PA Families for Safe Birth."When I walked outside and saw the sea of people who had come out to support Diane and homebirth freedom, I was overcome," said Faith Bucks, Chiropractor and co-founder of SaveHomebirth.com. Amish and Plain men, women and babies had come by the hundreds from across Pennsylvania to show their desire to maintain their freedom to birth at home with the midwives of their choice.
8 comments:
Good grief! Since when can you not choose where and who will help you bring your baby into the world.
I'm all for the freedom to choose whether or not to have a homebirth! I don't know if you've seen The Business of Being Born documentary, but it really opened my eyes to alot of things, one of which being the importance of this freedom to choose! You can see the trailer at thebusinessofbeingborn.com.
It is soooo unconstitutional for them to do this. If a woman chooses to birth at home with a midwife it is HER CHOICE. Midwifes who are not nurse-midewifes are AGAINST the law in Indiana
Wow, I didn't even know about this and I live in PA. We are in a country which gives us the freedom to choose and if that doesn't include home birth then we are heading in the wrong direction.
Thank you for sharing. God Bless
Christine
You no what? If they decied against her, than I will feel realy bad for those women who do not make it to the hospital in time. In the future it would mean she would be charged with practicing medicine without a license as well as child endangerment.
A while back, a women had her children taken away from her, because she stepped outside of her car to put a quarter in the meter.
It was pouring down rain.
She was charged with abandonment.
Better not try pumping gas while your kids are left in the car, or let you kid step into the bathroom stall alone or let them go into another room in your house.
Crazy sounding I know, but I have met, through friends the CPS workers in the valley, and they realy feel that they no best, and that parents are clueless criminals.
I told a friend, that if she ever gets her kids back, to never answer her door ever again, unless she is certain it is one of her trusted friends. They tried to force her to lie before a grand jury about something, and when she would not, they grabbed her kids.
Paula
wow that is crazy! I have to say that the CPC thinks that it is above the law of God. If putting a quarter in the meter is child abandonment I don't know what will be next.
People need to hold more of the power over there families rather then the government.
I always hate to hear stories like this. I may not always choose homebirth, but I at least want to have the choice! One thing I should add though, out of fairness, is that in places like Britain which have lower death rates for homebirths, there is typically an emergency vehicle standing by or given a "heads-up" just in case. That isn't usually true here.
A woman who gives birth unassisted can't be charged, because the court knows good and well that sometims the baby comes too fast and the mom can't help it. However I wouldn't be surprised if they charged a father who was standing by!
So far, the laws in my state are such that homebirth is neither legal nor illegal. My midwives had me fill out the paperwork for the birth certificate of my last child as though it was an unassisted birth with only my husband attending. This is so they cannot be accused of a crime!
The sad fact is, if they take away the right of midwives to practise, too many people will choose the far more dangerous option of an unassisted birth (which, btw, has about a 1 in 25 rate of infant mortality - compare that to about 1 in 150-200 for midwife attended births, it's horrible!)
So typical! The facist nanny-state grows more powerful by the week!
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