15/03/2026
Back in November of 2024 I stumbled across a two-hour live video that I still haven’t been able to shake.
A mother named Cherise was telling the story of what happened to her while she was in labor.
Not after the birth. During labor!
What she described sounded like something out of a dystopian novel.
While she was on a labor and delivery unit, refusing a fourth C-section, the hospital escalated the situation to the courts.
Yes, the courts.
While she was in labor, the hospital pushed for a court hearing so a judge could decide whether she would be forced to undergo surgery.
Imagine that for a moment.
You are contracting, in labor, your body is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
And suddenly the question isn’t about your care anymore.
It’s about whether the state gets to decide what happens to your body.
I listened to her speak for two hours.
Two hours of shock and disbelief.
Two hours of realizing that this is not just bad care.
This is obstetrical violence.
After hearing her story I reached out to Cherise privately. Because honestly, there are no words you can offer someone who has experienced something like that.
But now, after everything she’s gone through, she’s ready to tell her story publicly.
And people need to understand what happened.
Because if this can happen once, it can happen again.
And again.
And again.
The investigation published by ProPublica revealed that in some cases hospitals have gone to court to try to override a pregnant patient’s refusal of a C-section.
Think about how extreme that is.
In the United States, a mentally competent adult has the legal right to refuse medical treatment.
You can refuse chemotherapy.
You can refuse blood transfusions.
You can refuse life-saving surgery.
But somehow, when a woman is pregnant, people start arguing that her rights should disappear.
That her body becomes negotiable.
That a judge should decide.
That it’s ok to throw an iPad at you an force you to attend court while you’re naked and vulnerably laboring in your hospital bed.
This is the slippery slope people should be terrified of.
Because if courts start deciding how women give birth, pregnancy becomes the only condition where the government can force surgery on a conscious, competent adult.
Let that sink in.
Not because there was an emergency.
Not because she was unconscious.
But because she said no.
And someone decided her no didn’t matter.
The moment bodily autonomy becomes optional during pregnancy, we are no longer talking about healthcare.
We are talking about control.
Cherise is finally ready to share her story.
And people need to hear it.
Because the normalization of obstetrical violence doesn’t start with dramatic headlines.
It starts quietly.
With people believing that pregnant women shouldn’t get the final say over their own bodies.
And black women in particular have been the targets of obstetrical violence and experiments.
Please read her full story below and I’ve also put a snippet of her court hearing while she was laboring in her bed at UF Health in Jacksonville, Florida in the comments.
👇🏾
https://www.propublica.org/article/florida-court-ordered-c-sections
