Judge strikes down Missouri midwifery law
According to the Kansas City Star:"A judge has struck down a new law that would have allowed certain lay midwives to deliver babies in Missouri without facing the threat of criminal charges.
A Cole County judge declared the midwifery language unconstitutional, saying it went beyond the title and original purpose of the health insurance bill to which it was secretly attached in the final weeks of the legislative session.
Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce issued a permanent injunction barring the midwifery law from taking effect as scheduled Aug. 28. She allowed the rest of the health insurance bill to stand."
As I wrote in a previous post, Direct Entry Midwifery can only be legalized by lies, the Missouri legislature has repeatedly voted down attempts to license DEMs. So this year, homebirth advocates thought that they would try something new: lying. A legislator slipped the language into a large insurance bill without telling anyone, including his colleagues, about it. For his deception, he lost his chairmanship of the Small Business, Insurance and Industrial Relations Committee.
The case is not over. Mary Ueland, of the Missouri Midwives Association, the main intervenor-defendant in the case, has suggested that the Midwives Association may appeal the decision.
Labels: midwifery
<< Home