Quinta Layin Tuleh, the HIV-positive pregnant woman a federal judge in Bangor, Maine, ordered jailed until her baby was delivered, has been released on bail while her appeal of her sentence makes its way through the courts.
In May, Judge John Woodcock Jr. ruled that he would jail Tuleh — who pleaded guilty to possessing false immigration documents — for the rest of her pregnancy because he believed that, if she were in prison, she would be more likely to get medical treatment that would reduce the risk of her fetus contracting HIV. He told her that if she were either not pregnant or not HIV-positive, he would have sentenced her to the 114 days she had already spent in jail and let her go free.
The decision was so unusual that both Tuleh and federal prosecutors appealed the sentence for being too harsh. Fifteen state and national organizations (mainly advocates for women's issues, HIV-patients' rights, and reproductive rights) and medical experts filed a joint document supporting both the appeal and Tuleh's request for bail, saying medical care would be better outside of the prison system, and that keeping her locked up simply for being pregnant and HIV-positive was a dangerous precedent other courts have studiously avoided.
Last week, Woodcock agreed, though he is powerless to alter the sentence — the appeal process removes that option from his jurisdiction. Tuleh and the prosecution have asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to immediately overturn the sentence and return the case to Woodcock, with the expectation that, this time, he will sentence her to time served and release her immediately.
Related:
Repro on the Red Line, Shifting sands, The kids in the hall, More
- Repro on the Red Line
Safe sex just got a little easier for women in Cambridge and Somerville, who won’t have to go quite as far for birth control, emergency contraception, or testing for pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections.
- Shifting sands
No matter what decisions are made by the courts, Congress, or state legislators, birth control and reproductive rights are at the nexus of public policy, individual privacy, health-care regulations, ethical arguments, religious beliefs, and morality
- The kids in the hall
Someone is going to get pregnant.
- Palin: The plain truth
In selecting Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential candidate, Republican nominee John McCain pulled a Clarence Thomas.
- Federal judge: more rights for the unborn
A federal judge in Bangor, Maine, has recognized a new right of fetuses that could become a key element in the nation's ongoing abortion debate.
- Zealots seem to eliminate homosexuality in the womb
The same gang that for decades has warred against any invasion of the womb in which a developing fetus resides now hopes to put a fetus on a sure road to heterosexuality.
- Snowe’s tracks
Believe the hype — US Senator Olympia Snowe’s key votes in 2005 and 2006 do, indeed, straddle party lines. Whether you like that or not depends on which issues get to you. Blown away: Jean Hay Bright's fight to topple a political icon. By Sara Donnelly
- Controlling birth
Not surprisingly, I am searching for yet another birth control pill that doesn’t wreck my life.
- The 10th Annual Muzzle Awards
Mitt Romney will say or do anything if he thinks it will help him become president.
- Ditched
Olympia Snowe would protect me, I thought. I continued to believe that right up until January 31, when she voted to support George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
- Quiet warfare
On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, Culture and Lifestyle, Special Interest Groups, Women's Issues, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, Special Interest Groups, Women's Issues, Judiciary, U.S. Courts, Family, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Bangor Maine, First Circuit Court of Appeals, John Woodcock, Less