Court reverses forced hospitalization of pregnant woman

A Florida appeal court today reversed a pregnant woman's forced hospitalization, ruling that her right to refuse medical treatment had been violated.

A Tallahassee judge had issued the order after Samantha Burton's doctor argued the woman, who was six months pregnant, was risking a miscarriage if she didn't quit smoking and stay in the hospital on bed rest.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled 2-1 in Burton's favor. The opinion is grounded in the state constitution's strong privacy right, although it's also in line with similar decisions outside Florida.

"A patient's fundamental constitutional right to refuse medical intervention 'can only be overcome if the state has a compelling state interest great enough to override this constitutional right,' " wrote District Judge Nikki Ann Clark, quoting from a 1994 ruling by another Florida appeal court.

The dissenting judge, Wendy Berger, agreed with that reasoning but contended the case should have been dismissed as being moot because Burton delivered a stillborn fetus by Cesarean section three days after she was hospitalized.

Clark and Judge William Van Nortwick, though, ruled the issue should be decided to set a precedent for future cases because Burton's situation could be repeated.

That's exactly why Burton appealed. She also was afraid if the hospitalization order was allowed to stand it would discourage other women from seeking prenatal care.

"It's an important decision," said Burton's lawyer, David Abrams. "This decision gives a lot of protection to women and their relationship with their doctors."

Pregnant women now won't have to fear becoming a ward of the state as a result of seeing a doctor, Abrams said.

He said he has been unable to reach Burton to discuss the ruling and ask her if she would be willing to talk to the news media. In the past she has, through Abrams, declined interviews.

The American Civil Liberties Union also had argued on Burton's behalf in a friend of the court brief.

"The court got it exactly right," said ACLU lawyer Diana Kasdan. "The state really overstepped the line here."

Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, said that the decision was still under review and that no decision had been made whether to seek a new hearing or appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Burton, who has two young daughters and a common-law husband, didn't want an abortion and voluntarily had gone to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital after experiencing symptoms of potential complications.

However, she didn't like the care she was getting, complaining that her doctor was brusque and overbearing. She wanted to go to another hospital or return home so she could care for her children.

State Attorney Willie Meggs sought the hospitalization order after he had been contacted by Tallahassee Memorial. Meggs said he was trying to do the right thing by protecting Burton's fetus but had no prior Florida case law to follow.

"We didn't have guidance," Meggs said. "Now we have some guidance."

The appeal court's opinion cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized most abortions, in noting the state's interest in the potential life of an unborn fetus only becomes compelling "at the point in time when the fetus becomes viable."

The state, though, failed to show Burton's fetus was viable. Under case law that means it was capable of living outside the womb without artificial aid.

Even if the state had made such a showing that wouldn't have been enough, Clark wrote. That's because Circuit Judge John Cooper erred when he based the hospitalization order on case law that did not pertain to the privacy rights of pregnant women.

In a case that parallel's Burton's, an appeal court in Washington, D.C., ruled a judge in 1987 should not have ordered a woman who was dying of cancer to have a C-section against her wishes to save her fetus. The baby died within two hours of delivery, and the mother died two days later.

In 2004, a hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., obtained a court order to force a woman to have a C-section because her seventh baby was oversized, but the order was too late. The mother went to another hospital and delivered an 11-pound, 9-ounce girl naturally.