An Internet search
on Julie Balotta,
according to Google, will produce about 144,000 results in 0.24 seconds. She is
famous, having given a breech birth to a baby boy who survived the ordeal. OK, that happens somewhere every day. What
made her famous is that the labour started in what is now an infamous prison.
This, too, has been known to happen in prisons for women around the world. What
makes the Ottawa-Carlton Detention Centre infamous?
- This woman was in labour for hours without being provided one shred of medical assistance other than a pain killer. If the reports are to be believed, nurses (really?) told her she was having indigestion or "false" labour. (In my opinion these nurses need recertification before being let loose again on an unsuspecting population.)
- She was told that she should not have allowed herself to become pregnant if she cannot handle pain.
- When she made too much noise she was moved from the cell which she shared with two other women and segregated in an isolation cell where she was utterly alone.
- Finally, after a baby's foot emerges, officials call an ambulance. Baby Gionni is delivered by the paramedics right there in the prison cell - all credit to them.
- Eventually mother and child are admitted to hospital - Julie needing blood, Baby Gionni with respiratory problems.
You can get more
details here: Ottawa prison investigating allegations that guards ignored womanwho gave birth in jail cell
Human right
organizations, bloggers and newspapers are outraged, rightly, that Julie's
rights were violated, regardless of why she is in jail, and an investigation is underway according to Ontario's minister for correctional services, herself a former delivery room nurse. (Advocates call for inquiry after woman gives birth in Ottawa jail cell)
Nobody seems upset
that Baby Gionni's rights were violated. Oh, yes. Of course. This is Canada. In
this country a child in the womb, of any age, is not legally a person and has
no rights. I wonder what the legal position is when a foot is sticking out?
