John Whitehead's Commentary
A Juvenile Judge Takes an Unpopular Stand To Save a Child's Life
The decision unleashed a wave of protests throughout the state, as women's groups cried out that Judge Nasif was unduly interfering with reproductive freedom. But the judge's bold move to protect the life of an unborn child should be admired, not rebuked.
Corneau belongs to the Attleboro religious sect, a tiny cult that does not believe in medical attention of any kind. In 1999, her son Jeremiah died minutes after birth because Corneau and her husband refused to suction fluid from his mouth and throat. They attributed the child's choking to "God's will."
That same year, the son of two fellow cult members died after being placed on a special diet and essentially starving to death. The bodies of these two children have never been found, although police believe they were buried during a hike in Maine. Judge Nasif intervened in Rebecca's current pregnancy after he became convinced that a similar fate could befall the unborn child.
Corneau is being held at a secure public health facility in Boston that provides services for 15 pregnant and postpartum women. State officials say she will remain there until she submits to a medical exam. District Attorney Paul Walsh, Jr. said she probably wouldn't submit, "so she'll stay there until the baby is born."
But if Wendy Murphy gets her way, Rebecca will be back home before she gets to the delivery room. Murphy, an attorney and reproductive rights law professor, has filed an emergency appeal with an upper court under a state law that allows intervention for judicial error or abuse.
Murphy has the support of major women's rights groups, including the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Law Center and the ACLU. Each of these organizations has come out against Judge Nasif, saying his ruling is an unwarranted government intervention into a woman's private life. ACLU attorney Sarah Wunsch went so far as to call the judge an "outlaw." Andi Mullin, president of the Boston chapter of NOW, told the Boston Herald that Corneau has the right to "make any decision about health care that she wants to make" and called the decision "un-American."
This decision, though, isn't about government interference in the private life of a woman. It's about a young child, just a few weeks from entering this world, which may need protection to save its life. It seems certain that a judge would intervene to protect the child should its life be in danger after leaving the womb. It simply doesn't make sense to say that the judge should restrain from intervening when the child is still a few weeks away from breathing on its own.
Some critics have accused the judge of starting down a slippery slope toward completely denying the rights of women. But a slope that begins its incline by saving the life of a child has to be headed in the right direction.
That isn't to say this is not a difficult case. There are serious questions about the tension between religious citizens practicing their faith as they see fit and the government's duty to protect helpless members of society. There is an old legal saying that "hard cases make bad law." But, thankfully, this old proverb didn't hold true. Judge Nasif had to make a hard decision. In the end, he made the right one and in the process moved our society a little further down the road toward full protection for life.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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