The Fattish Wonder!

Laura Pemberton told a roomful of pro-choice activists, midwives, doulas, and feminist organizers how she was taken from her Florida home—while in active labor—shackled, and forced to undergo a cesarean section that she did not want. Pemberton had wanted a vaginal home birth, but when she became dehydrated during labor, she decided to go to the hospital to receive fluids. When a doctor noticed a scar from a previous C-section, the hospital staff panicked—many doctors won’t perform a vaginal delivery (VBAC) after a cesarean section. They told Pemberton that she wouldn’t have to give birth vaginally, and that she would have to stay tat the hospital. She refused, and went home to continue her labor. (She actually had to sneak out of the hospital, as the staff had called the district attorney to come and compel her to get surgery.)

Once she was back at home, a sheriff came to her house, at which point her legs where shackled together and she was forced to go to the hospital, where a hearing was being held about the rights of the fetus—her child. A lawyer had been appointed to her unborn child, but not to Pemberton. After being forced to have surgery, Pemberton sued. She lost. The state told Pemberton that her rights hadn’t been violated; doctors could operate on her without her permission because of the rights of her fetus—as defined by the state—trumped her own.

—Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women (via alexandravictorious)

(Source: sleepyempress, via mystertea)