50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial

Barbara Stratton (voted one of the United States' top 30 women's health activists of 2005 by the National Women's Health Network) has a great piece up at Midwifery Today titled 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial:

In 1999, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) issued new, restrictive guidelines for physicians and hospitals that handle vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). At first small, rural hospitals stopped offering VBAC; then larger, metropolitan ones followed suit. Now over 300 hospitals in our country no longer allow women to choose their method of birth.

Some of her suggestions include the usual; contacting local media, writing your legislator, organizing a protest, etc.; but she has the following legal suggestions:

3. File a complaint with your state medical board against the physician. Again, if the hospital where he/she has privileges meets the ACOG guidelines, then use the standard of care argument. Also point out that your physician is violating your right to refuse treatment. For more information on these rights, see the essay created by Katie Prown based on her research of the illegality of VBAC bans, at www.birthpolicy.org/primer.html.

Katie also covers how denying a patient the right to refuse treatment violates ACOG's own ethics guidelines. Throw that in, too!

In situations where you were literally forced into surgery, use the blue pages of the telephone book to contact your state's attorney general and pursue criminal assault and battery charges against the physician.

4. File a complaint with your state agency that regulates hospitals. In Maryland, this is the Office of Hospital Quality Assurance (comes under of Department of Mental Health and Hygiene). They have an official complaint process for consumers. Again, use the ACOG standard of care argument if your hospital meets the VBAC guidelines and include that you are being denied your right to refusal of treatment. Then, pull a copy of your hospital's patient bill of rights (found on many hospital Web pages) and see if the ban is a direct violation of their own document! In Maryland, all hospitals are required to have a bill of rights.

She later explains:

7. Find a lawyer who will help you sue your banning hospital. Make sure you give him or her the link to Katie's essay because most lawyers don't seem to know the ins and outs of the patient rights issue. Tell them about the violation of standard of care if that pertains. To find a lawyer, write to your state chapter of the ACLU or contact your local law school and ask for someone who deals with health law. Try your state's bar association for referrals as well. In a case from Massachusetts a woman was awarded $1.5 million for the post traumatic stress disorder and medical complications resulting from her coerced cesarean.(Meador v. Stahler and Gheridian (Middlesex Superior Court C.A. No. 88-6450, Mass. 1993)) Many lawyers won't know about that case until you tell them.

Interesting. Any takers?