Emily Tvrdy, Amanda Musilek, and Kate Ternus filed federal lawsuits challenging Nebraska's ban on certified nurse-midwives attending home births. According to the press release, Nebraska is the only state that bans this, with midwives facing threat of felony charges is they do so.
One case is known as Emily Tvrdy and Amanda Musilek v. Hilgers. The other case is Kate Ternus v. Hilgers.
Joshua Polk is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, who is representing the mothers in this case. He tells AFN that is totally legal to have a home birth in Nebraska.
"It's the same in all 50 states, but what's not legal is hiring a certified nurse midwife to help you deliver at home, even though certified nurse-midwives are specifically trained to handle births, to organize emergency transfers if necessary and that sort of thing," Polk says.
This, he notes, is totally backwards.
"Because obviously, an unassisted home birth — again, totally legal — is much riskier than a home birth assisted by a medical professional like a certified nurse-midwife," Polk states.
Pacific Legal Foundation sees two violations here. One is a violation of due process.
"In our view, mothers have a fundamental right to choose a safe manner and circumstance of giving birth," states Polk. "That right should not be infringed by ridiculous and backwards policies like a ban on professional assistance at a home birth. So, in that sense, the 14th Amendment is violated."
He adds that "the other way that the Constitution is offended here" is on religious liberty grounds.
"We're actually bringing a constitutional claim and a statutory claim because Nebraska has a statute that protects religious exercise, as well as the free exercise provision of the First Amendment," says Polk. "Two of the mothers who are suing have very strong religious beliefs that a childbirth should be natural and consistent with God's design. So that's their view, and it's being infringed because they're being funneled into a hospital birth that conflicts with those values."
