Salt Lake City — A pregnant woman who allegedly ignored medical warnings to have a Cesarean section to save her twins was charged Thursday with murder after one of the babies was stillborn.
An autopsy found the baby died two days before its Jan. 13 delivery and that it would have survived if Ms. Rowland had had a C-section when her doctors urged her to, between Christmas and Jan. 9. The other baby is alive.
Prosecutors said Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, didn't want the scars that accompany the surgery.
In January, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that unborn children at all stages of development are covered under the state's criminal homicide statute. The law exempts the death of a fetus during an abortion.
The law has been used to prosecute women who kill or seriously harm their babies through drug use but has never been used because a woman failed to follow her doctor's advice, said Marguerite Driessen, a law professor at Brigham Young University.
The doctors had warned that without a C-section, the twins would probably die, authorities said. A nurse told police that Ms. Rowland had said that a Caesarean would “ruin her life” and that she would rather “lose one of the babies than be cut like that.”
“We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations” for the mother's decision, said Kent Morgan, spokesman for the district attorney.
According to the documents, Ms. Rowland went to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City in December to seek advice after she hadn't felt her babies move. A nurse, Regina Davis, told police she instructed Ms. Rowland to go immediately to one of two other hospitals, but that she said she would rather have both babies die before going to either place.
On Jan. 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital examined Ms. Rowland and recommended an immediate C-section based on an ultrasound and the babies' slowing heart rates. Ms. Rowland left, the doctor told police. The same day, Ms. Rowland allegedly saw a nurse at another hospital, saying she had left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her “from breast bone to pubic bone.”
A week later, Ms. Rowland allegedly went to a third hospital to verify whether her babies were alive. A nurse there told police she could not detect a heartbeat from one twin and advised her to remain in the hospital, but Rowland allegedly ignored the advice.
“It's very troubling to have somebody come in and say we're going to charge this mother for murder because we don't like the choices she made,” Dr. Driessen, the Brigham Young professor, said.
A spokesman for LDS Hospital said he could not comment, citing medical privacy and a pending court case. It was not clear how many weeks Ms. Rowland was pregnant before the delivery.
Court documents give no address for Ms. Rowland, and she isn't listed in area telephone books. An attorney was to be appointed for her Friday, Mr. Morgan said. A court appearance was set for Tuesday.
The charges carry five years to life in prison. She was jailed on $250,000 (U.S.) bail.
