I am angry, to begin with, that a woman in Utah has been charged with murder because one of the twins she was carrying was stillborn after she ignored doctors who advised a Caesarian section. This is just a further escalation of what is already a war on women who need and deserve compassion.
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Another detail that might have been worth mentioning appears in the Salt Lake Tribune: Melissa Rowland has a long history of mental illness. She was first committed to a mental hospital when she was twelve years old.
Suddenly the narrative shifts a bit. A frightened, mentally ill, pregnant woman, living on Social Security disability benefits, facing eviction, the father of her children gone, went from hospital to hospital looking for help, and no one knew what to do for her or how to reach her. And because of that, she has been in jail for nearly two months and faces murder charges:
But Kent Morgan, deputy Salt Lake County prosecutor and a spokesman for District Attorney David Yocom, said Rowland's crime stems from the depraved indifference and utter callousness she showed toward her unborn twins.
There is indeed depraved indifference and utter callousness at the heart of this story, but it's not Melissa Rowland's.
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