Marian Tompson Advocates for Home Birth Rights

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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Besides heading the home birth movement's sole legal aid organization, Ms. Tompson has had a lot of personal experience with out-of-hospital births: Not only were four of her seven children born at home, but three of those offspring have returned to Marian's house to have their own babies!

New legislation threatens the home birth movement and home birth rights.

Home Birth Rights Under Siege

Last Mother’s Day, a dedicated but grim assemblage of physicians, midwives, nursing mothers, and other parents gathered in Washington, D. C. And whereas most birth activist groups are upbeat educational organizations, the individuals assembled for the D. C. conference had come simply to fight . . . to protect the rights of those who want to have, or participate in, home births.

This organization, the Alternative Birth Crisis Coalition, was formed in 1981 . . . in response to what its members perceived as a recent nationwide increase in the persecution (and prosecution) of people involved in out-of-hospital delivery of babies. And anyone who attended the May ABCC gathering (and listened to the accounts of doctors who’ve lost their medical licenses, attendants who’ve been accused of infant murder, and parents who’ve had their newborn children taken away from them) soon realized that the birth-at-home option is being attacked by powerful societal forces . . . and that this small coalition of parents’ rights advocates is going to have its hands full trying to halt the growing trend toward compulsory hospitalization in this country.

The moods of many of the day’s speakers reflected that gloomy outlook. Several individuals spoke darkly of repression, civil disobedience, and even martyrdom. Yet the conference’s final speaker, the executive director of ABCC, managed both to be realistic about the battle ahead and to speak, with joy, of the love of children and families that motivated every member of the group. This person, Marian Tompson, is the subject of our Plowboy Interview.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1982
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