grunge_no_dads_allowed_sign_photo_cut_out-ra27a555662e4456797c6086cc44bc281_x7saz_8byvr_324by Kelli

Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed said all patients — and pregnant women especially — enjoy strong privacy protections that let them decide who can be at their hospital bedside.

Fathers, on the other hand, have no established legal right to be present at the birth of their children, the judge wrote.

“Any interest a father has before the child’s birth is subordinate to the mother’s interests,” Mohammed wrote. “Even when there is no doubt that a father has shown deep and proper concern and interest in the growth and development of the fetus, the mother is the one who must carry it to term.”…

The mother’s privacy rights won the day, the judge wrote, because of a pair of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions on abortion — Roe v. Wade from 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey from 1992. The high court established in those rulings that an expectant mother has a stronger right over her body and over her unborn child than the father. A court majority in Casey ruled that women are not even required to tell their spouses about abortions, Mohammed noted….

~ Salvador Rizzo, The Star-Ledger, March 12

[HT: Laura Loo; graphic via zazzle.com]

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