AMA Declares War
http://midwiferyworld.com/?p=232
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 16, 2008)—Just in time for Father’s Day, at its annual meeting last weekend, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution to introduce legislation outlawing home birth, and potentially making criminals of the mothers who choose home birth with the help of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) for their families.
I think what kills me about this is that if home birth is outlawed… what are they planning to do with the babies of the women who do it?
More news as it appears, and as soon as I have some concrete action to take, I’ll let y’all know.
nuts. now just a notch more organized.
i’m just sad and angry because it has real consequences.
and that in the land of choices.
The insanity of this just leaves me speechless . . .
Amen on SPEECHLESS
Holy crap.
That is beyond insane. How can they even remotely justify this??? How???
Never mind. Tell me where to bring the torches and pitchforks.
Right, so if a baby just *happens* to arrive before a woman can make it to a hospital or other approved institution…? What then?
Argggh. This is ridiculous.
Hmm…I think they’re blowing smoke and trying to get publicity. Seriously. Under which article or amendment to the Constitution could they justify making this law? It seems like more of a state issue to me - are they planning to introduce this legislation in all 50 state legislatures/assemblies?
The only other piece of birth-related “legislation” that I know of at a federal level (keeping in mind I’m not at all a legal person) is Roe v. Wade, which makes abortion legal by default - there is no law saying a woman has a right to an abortion, but there is no law saying abortion is against the law…
I think they are just trying to attract some attention and cover their you-know-whats. The AMA is a professional union, is it not?
This is frightening. Did I tell you that after our home birth a couple months ago our birth certificate application was rejected? It had the town and state (i.e. population 33). They called my midwife and told her they have to have a physical address to issue a birth certificate (despite the fact that her previous moms only put city/state on their apps). And we couldn’t give the physical address on a separate piece of paper or over the phone. Nooooo. That’d be too easy. We have to get our witnesses to start over (3 months later) re-issue notarized letters that they witnessed the birth or have seen the baby. Ridiculous. Anyway, I told my m/w that I guess we’re lucky I didn’t deliver in the car or in the mall or at the beach (or in a boat–wink). Cause, you know, in that case we’d never get a birth certificate. ::rolls eyes::
What I find amazing is that with all the problems in the medical field, the AMA chooses to speak out against homebirth. They could/should speak out about the insanity of certain major medical procedures that have become out-patient, or the horrid practices of hospitals that send sick patients home once their medicare runs out, or the stupidity of doctors who promote c-sections and inductions . Nope, intead, they speak out about something that costs them money–if we’re birthing at home, no money hits their greedy pockets. And I am completely insulted by their comments about Lake’s documentary. Somehow, they see us as brainless women who will choose homebirth simply because a so-called celebrity promotes it. And they wonder why we want to birth at home…